Fly derived from bakerites floating dragon nymph and Randall Kaufman’s similar pattern. This fly does several things pretty well- float up above the bottom and seldom catches weeds, soft enough that fish tend to hold onto it and the hooking percentage is high, durable and will float all day. Pay attention when fishing the fly because fish will sometimes take it deep. It uses a bit of a bunch of favorite materials- deer hair, marabou, rubber legs, and hares ear or peacock.
Hook: Daiichi 2220 or similar 3x or 4x streamer hook
Tail: marabou
Body: deer body hair
Legs: silicone or flexifloss
Eyes: 7 mm foam cylinder
Collar: hares ear, other dubbing or peacock.
Tie in a tail of olive marabou- short but fairly thick. The real bugs don’t have notable tails but the marabou adds a bit more action.
Spin or stack the deer hair body. In this case I spun the first bundle in and stacked the rest. Life is easier if you use a short bunch of hair for that closet to the tail such that it is easily sorted from the marabou when trimming
In response to a question from Wayne- tie in the bottom bundle of hair in each stack on top of the shank. One fairly loose wrap followed by a tighter one , then a tighter yet one during which the hair is allowed to spin to the bottom of the shank. The picture below shows the hair held in place by the second wrap.
and then in place on the bottom of the fly. Add a top bunch of hair the same size as the bottom bunch. Note that spinning all of the body hair instead of stacking is quicker and the fly will catch fish just fine.
Continue adding hair until the shank is full to about the 7/8 point near the eye. To avoid trapping hair from a previous bunch the thread should be advanced to leave space between the last bundle the next one. After the next bundle is in place it should be pushed back against the previous one with your fingers. I don’t feel a hair packing tool is needed on this fly, as it doesn’t need to be super tight.
Leave a bit of room for the eyes and legs.
Trim the bottom flat and open up the hook gap ( but not so close that you cut the thread).
Trim to shape. This fly is more or less the shape of a Darner nymph, the mud dwellers have shorter, stouter looking body.
Continue trimming to desired shape. Reattach the thread and add the eyes. A bit of super glue can help hold the eyes in place. I trim the eyes to about the same width as the body.
Add one piece of leg material on each side of the fly.
Add a small collar wrap of hares ear, other dubbing or peacock, tie off in front of the eyes and trim the legs to about body length.
