spiders

[horses50]

Do you tie spiders with a small amount of dubbing just behind the hackle so it does not lie flat on the hook shank,does it make that much difference to your catch rate?The traditional way of tying them as you know is with just the 2 materials silk thread and hackle.

[flyfishwithme]

This a practice that RW Fogg advocates in his books and it does 'cock; the hackle. The practice of putting a 'collar' behind the hackle dates right back about 200 years when peacock and magpie hurl was used.
I have often added a minute ball of fur behind the hackle on my spiders but I don't think iy makes them any better.
Fishing them properly is better and making the hackles pulse (yes it can be down downstream) will always produce fish.
But hey, try it yourself. Just don't make it too large.

[North Country Angler]

Agree with Phil there. The tendency is for anglers to see the spider's hackle fibres 'glued' to the hook shank when they examine it after retrieving and assume that is how they look when fished......well sort of, yes - but only if you're dangling 'em downstream on a tight line!

I too have tried the herl trick both in front of and behind the hackle. Does it increase the spiders' effectiveness? Can't say it does from what I've seen. Have faith in the flimsy!!

M

[paddy5]

Call me a heretic horses but what I have been doing for a while is tying in my hackle and bringing the thread three touching turns down the shank, I then wind my hackle two and a half turns down the shank and wind thread up through the hackle towards the head . It may be unorthodox but I find it bolsters the hackle and gives it a better kick in the water. PJ

[clydestyle]

I Love Tying Spiders And Fishing Them Too Heres A Couple Plover And Yellow With Small Dub Button Behind Hackle And Patridge & Copper Without

[flyfishwithme]

Originally Posted by paddy5

Call me a heretic horses but what I have been doing for a while is tying in my hackle and bringing the thread three touching turns down the shank, I then wind my hackle two and a half turns down the shank and wind thread up through the hackle towards the head . It may be unorthodox but I find it bolsters the hackle and gives it a better kick in the water. PJ

Not a heretic Paddy but with a couple of small modifications you are nearly at a 'true' spider (versus North Country Fly, Clyde style Fly, Tummel style fly) tied by a Mr Baillie fir WC Stewart.
Yep I know the right way to then a Stewart Spider but if you extend your approach down 1/3 the shank and took the hackle is 3 open turns down to that point and winding the thread back to the eye you have pretty good looking 'spider'.

[horses50]

Thanks for the replies,i too am a great fan of the spiders and in my opinion one of the most underated fly that any fisherman can put on the end of his/her line.On my recent trip to the scottish borders spiders accounted for most of my fish,the best one by far was the partridge and orange, deadly. I was fishing a 2 fly cast [bloody wind] and i had to take one of the partridge and orange spiders off because i was hooking up 2 at a time not easy to bring them to the net on light tackle. Most of the trout i caught were between 6 to 8 inches.As an added bonus i was fishing a black spider and caught a 16 inch grayling.roll on next year.

[flyfishwithme]

Originally Posted by paddy5

Call me a heretic horses but what I have been doing for a while is tying in my hackle and bringing the thread three touching turns down the shank, I then wind my hackle two and a half turns down the shank and wind thread up through the hackle towards the head . It may be unorthodox but I find it bolsters the hackle and gives it a better kick in the water. PJ

Not a heretic Paddy but with a couple of small modifications you are nearly at a 'true' spider (versus North Country Fly, Clyde style Fly, Tummel style fly) tied by a Mr Baillie for WC Stewart.
Yep I know the right way to then a Stewart Spider but if you extend your approach down 1/3 the shank and took the hackle is 3 open turns down to that point and winding the thread back to the eye you have pretty good looking 'spider'.

[wingman]

Here's a spider I tied a few months back useing peacock herl to create a small thorax and bolstering up the jackdaw hackle, whether it would be more or less effective as a fish attractor is hard to say, certainly the herl will reflect the light to some extent, creating a bit of sparkle and also movement so these would be added bonuses I suppose.