Hi Graham.
Thanks for posting the B & P Spider.
I'm hardly an authority on these & in fact haven't tied one in many years. This is however a great pattern to start with. Things like selecting the correct materials, proportion, neatness & accuracy can easily be gauged when you look at one of these.
First up, you do need to use the right type of hook. This will help in tying this pattern no end.
Next, select decent quality materials as there is no hiding place with only a couple of ingredients.
People will say that scrappy, scruffy flies catch fish, but these also tend to be the ones that disintegrate after a few takes & what use is that?
Rather than tackle points one-by-one, I thought I'd tie one up myself as an SBS. As I say, this isn't the perfect B & P Spider by any means, but I hope you'll get a fair picture as to where to go.
I used a size 12 Kamasan B170 for this (which to my eyes gives good proportions) although Spider devotees will often use a much lighter gauge hook. The thread was Uni-thread 8/0 black with 3 good quality peacock herls & dyed black hen hackle.
Tie the thread on at the head & take down to the point shown at the start of the bend in touching turns.
Select 3 good peacock herls, line the fat tips up & trim them even.
Tie them down at exactly where you left the last wrap of thread at the bend.
Lash the herls down on top of the shank in touching turns finishing quite close to the head as shown.
The next part is purely down to you, but I like to create a slight taper to the underbody with the thread as in the image below. Try to make it fairly neat & the practice with accurately laying thread turns won't be a bad thing. Don't overdo the taper, or the jump down at the eye will be too harsh & could cause materials to slip down to the eye.
When done, finish just behind the eye.
Beginners often worry about not having enough room at the head, so instinctively leave far too much room. You only need about 1mm at the eye for this pattern.
At this stage, if you want to make the dressing last longer, apply a thin layer of varnish to the underbody & allow to dry a little for a couple of minutes.
Twist the 3 fibres to make a rope.
A tip here is to not twist them too much, just so long as you can see a few turns of rope at the end nearest where the wrappings will go. You should add further twists as you go. Over-twisting at the start can be a problem if the herls snap!
Wrap the herls around the shank in touching turns, twisting as needed between wraps.
Finish up right at the eye as shown & tie in with 3 or 4 tight turns of thread.
Trim the herls up neatly with some fine, sharp scissors.
The best way is to pull them out at an angle, then open the scissor blades just a fraction, slide right up to where the herls were tied in & trim flush.
Now you need to select a hackle feather.
You'll know what looks right pretty instinctively after a while, but here are a couple of examples where the proportion just looks wrong. The only way to find out is to offer the feather up to the hook & take a few wraps around at the point where you're about to tie it in.
Too long...
Too short...
Just about right.
Pull the long and/or fluffy fibres away from the base of the stalk, the tie the stalk in with 3 turns where the correct length fibres are & trim away the waste end of stalk as close as you can.
Using hackle pliers or your fingers, take 2 full or 3 turns just behind the eye. Try to manipulate the fibres rearward between turns & lay each wrap of the stalk just in front of the last. They should be butted up to each other, but not one on top of the last!
Tie the end in at the eye.
Trim up as close as you can & then stroke the hackle fibres backwards as shown & take just one or two turns of thread to hold in place. You want a very slight backwards slant, not a 45 degree angle to the shank.
Form a small, neat head.
Whip finish & trim as close as possible to the whipping point.
Add a couple of drops of varnish with the tip of a dubbing needle & the dressing is completed.
Back to basics
, I'm sure the trout won't mind 
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