Complete Fisher Forum

[Chris]

Upside Down Dun - by Alan Bithell


There are a few versions of this fly around this is mine.

I use Ultra Thin Foam as a body material. You can use dubbing if you like. You'll still need the foam for the thorax cover.

Start the thread well back from the eye and pinch and loop a length of white or pail grey poly yarn to the top of the hook shank (2 turns)

Take a couple of turns the other way across the poly yarn so that it is fixed across the hook shank.

Twist the wing around the hook shank, in the same direction that you wind the thread.

Lift both sides of the wing and take the thread around the wing.

Secure the wing with turns to the front and back.

Twist the wing so it is under the hook shank.

Run the thread around the bend catching in a bunch of cock hackles as you go (I've used Pardo Coq De Leon) If you must you can use microfibberts.

Cut a strip of thin foam about 1/8" (3mm) wide. I've used olive here as I'm tying on a larger hook for the camera (size #16) for the IBD I used tan foam coloured with a grey marker pen.

Cut across the end at an angle of about 20' to create a point. Catch this point in with a couple of turns of thread.

Then wind the foam to form a tapered body. The body may look a little fat here but it will slim down.

It wasn't a mistake to leave the thread at the tail end of the body. It now comes forward as the rib. See how much it slims the body down. (I must need ribbing!) Remove the excess foam

Take a slightly wider strip of the foam and tie in as if tying a thorax cover for a nymph.

Prepare and tie in a hackle.

Wind the hackle both side of the wing. Tie off and remove the excess.

Trim out the top centre of the hackle for the thorax cover to pass through. (You can't split it evenly so best to trim it out)

Pull the thorax cover forward and tie in at the eye.

Trim out the excess and cut the wing to shape. Whip finish and there you have it.

Of course you can change the colour to create any Dun you like. Here, specially for Tango 51, is the IBD version using tan foam coloured grey with a marker pen, on a size #20.

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Species caught on fly to date - 46
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