Firebird
I've seen a few questions raised about this fly, its dressing and history.
Sid Knight, the veteran professional fly dresser of
www.dognobbler.com has sold these flies for several years now.
I noticed some youtube videos where the Firebird was used to great effect at clear water stalking venues such as Avington and Dever Springs.
I contacted Sid recently, and he was generous enough to respond with the following letter which also included an example of this mysterious dressing:
"Hi Stephen.
The Firebird was invented/designed by Alex Hunt back in 2002.
He likes to stalk big trout, and back then he got frustrated at not being able to get down to the big trout lying under the big weed mats at Dever and Avington.
The original dressing was a split shot superglued onto a size 10 hook then the head was painted red.
The tail was a few strands of Maraglit.
My enclosed Firebird:
Thread: black
Hook: strong carp hook size 6 or 8 (Kamasan B982)
Head: 4mm red tungsten bead superglued onto the hook
Tail: mixed strands of UV pearly materials
Body: black twinkle, but you can use any colour of the holographic materials available, but the tail is always the same mix
Rib: fine silver wire
This fly accounts for many big trout at the stalking waters as it sinks fast and has colour and movement, and it really works.
Hope this is what you were looking for.
If you need any more info, please let me know.
Regards,
S. N. Knight"
Here is the fly Sid provided me with, as described above:
Here is my version of this dressing:
Push the bead through the hook point and up to the eye.
Clamp the hook in the vice.
Although not specified in Sid's dressing, I now wind a few turns of fine lead wire around the shank and push these up into the recess of the bead, which in turn is pushed flush against the hook eye. This not only adds weight, but in my opinion it makes stabilising the bead with the superglue both easier and neater.
Wind the thread on behind the turns of lead, then add a blob of superglue to the lead wraps. Smear this all around the lead turns with a rough needle, being careful not to allow the glue to touch the bead.
Now lash down the lead with a few turns of thread as shown below.
You now need to add the tail, which consists of Pearl UV flashabou, regular mobile pearl flashabou and a few stands of gold flashabou, in the proportions 5:3:1
All these items (including the Lureflash black twinkle) can be easily and cheaply obtained via ebay.
Trim all the fibres so they are about 4 inches long and so fairly manageable, then mix the fibres together by twisting them in between index finger and thumb, then tie in on top of the hook shank.
Also tie in the rib of fine silver wire.
Once neatened-up a bit, tie in about 4 to 6 4-inch long strands of black twinkle for the body material and take the thread right up to behind the bead.
Wrap the body material up the shank, keeping it as even as you can. It helps to push the fibres together with your finger nail just where they leave the shank, in between turns.
Tie in as close to the head as you can and trim off neatly.
Rib with even turns of wire, tie in well and "wobble" the wire off to keep the collar neat.
Finally whip finish and varnish the collar thread turns, trim the tail to a faintly illegal length of between 30-40mm, then the dressing is completed.
Firebird
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