A fellow forumite asked me if I could direct him to an SBS for the Kelly Galloup spinner cripple.......that sounds like an excuse to get the vice out to me
This isn't the Galloup pattern in the strictest sense, more my personal variation on the theme which I've adapted over the past couple of seasons into something that works for me.....and boy does it work! Kelly's original pattern - and you may have seen similar offerings in the mags recently from Messrs Edwards and Crofts - uses a clipped collar hackle rather than parachute style, and uses a slip of zelon tied in to on side of the shank to mimic the 'one up one down' wing pattern of the majority of spent spinner naturals (have a look next time and you'l see what I mean).
In addition, the hook has a slight horizontal crank - again to mimic the contorted body position of the spinner.
I prefer a para style hackle for two reasons: first the little wing post adds a bit of visibility in the fading summer evening dusk, and secondly the 'mono wing' arrangement has I've found shown a tendency to cause the fly to spin when cast, leading to line twist when using fine tippet diameters.....so basically what we have here is a paradun with a cranked abdomen. I can definitely recommend it for fishing spinner falls - it is shockingly effective!
Hook: Kamasan B400 #16
Thread: Spiderweb
Tails: Dun microfibbets
Rib: Orange Pearsalls silk
Dubbing: Blend of masterclass shades #18 & 22
Wing post: light dun crinkled zelon
Hackle: Dun grizzle cock
1. Vice your hook and with a pair of pliers or similar, put a crank in the shank about 1/3 back from the eye, in the horizontal plane, to approx 30 degrees. Some hooks don't like being cranked and will snap (Partridge SLDs come to mind), but the Kamasans do the job admirably:
2. Run on your thread and catch in three microfibbets. This is a spinner pattern so they want to be longish - about the body length:
3. Now split the tails equally into three using the thread, so they look something like this:
4. Catch in and bind down your rib material:
5. Take a length of zelon approx 50mm and catch it in above the crank in the hook shank:
6. Now trim off the waste butt and give a few thread wraps around the zelon to form a wing post in the usual manner. Tidy up the body taper as necessary:
7. Park your thread back down at the tail end of the fly and dub back up to just in front of the wing post:
8. Follow up with the rib:
9. Right, the hackle. We're looking for a fairly sparsely fibred hackle which is bordering on the long side. Catch it in against the wing post and wrap around, up and then back down the post:
10. Give the hackle about three turns from top of post downwards, bind down and trim off waste:
11. Dub on a bit more material and holding the hackle fibres back with the fingers of your non bobbin hand, complete the dubbing to the front part of the fly before whipping off and adding a drop of head cement. Trim the wing post back quite short:
12. All that's left is to snip a few hackle fibres out front and back so the profile assumed is similar to that of the wings of the prostrate spinner. And there is is - dead simple and simply deadly!
Cheers,
Matt
BWO Spinner Cripple
SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.
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