Several species of fish–salmon, steelhead, trout, and more–will be spawning from fall through spring, so it pays to have egg patterns in your fly box. Here’s a cool pattern by western Pennsylvania fly tier Jeff Blood. Here’s a full episode of The New Fly Fisher in which Blood describes how he came up with the Blood Dot Egg and how he fishes it for Great Lakes steelhead:
In this week’s video from Tightline Productions, Tim Flagler walks you through the process of tying the Blood Dot Egg, which is pretty darn simple. It’s nothing more than three small loops of McFly Foam, along with a hot spot created with the same material. As usual, Tim has a tip for making a great pattern perform even better, too.
Jeff Blood’s Blood-Dot Egg
Hook: 2X-heavy, 2X-short scud/emerger hook (here, a Lightning Strike SE3), sizes 8-12.
Thread: White, 6/0 or 140-denier.
Body: Light orange McFly Foam.
Blood spot: Dark orange McFly Foam.
Adhesive: Thin UV-cure resin.
Tools: Bodkin.
I fished with Jeff Blood in many places over many years in my salad days and I will always remember him as a triple black belt fly fishing Master.
Any way to buy this light orange dark orange blood dot?
Excellent production. Truly one of the best demonstrations. I struggle with getting hackle to perform when tying some drys. I absolutely prefer grizzly hackle and prefer white 140 denier thread and then I tie in a red hot spot leaving only a small amount of white thread showing. I tie in two or three pieces of pheasant tail and wrap the body with peacock herl. I fish this fly with a New Zealand strike indicator and browns unequivocally choose this fly over others drys that I tie. Thank You for the visual clarity and tone you use when guiding fellow fly tiers through the process. Fish On and take care of our streams.