Stickleback Speykutling - Step by step
This is a special edition, not only of the fly pattern but also of the format step by step. You haven’t seen me mention this fly so much before so it is time I tell you about it and not only that. Because I think it is such an important pattern I will show you how to mass-produce these flies with a nice and even result! My plan when tying this fly is to make a quite large baitfish imitation, therefore I have put a lot of tone into having almost like a zonker appearance to the fly with a lot of hare in it and the spey hackle to help to largen and lengthen the appearance of the baitfish while on the same time giving it a lot of movement.
My fly fishing friends think I do nothing but tying flies now because the amounts of flies I have tied lately but the truth is it don't have to take so much time to tie a hundred flies or like in my case closer to 300 flies so far this year. I have used up 6 spools of dynema tying thread since January! The key is just to prepare all the materials because the big waste of time is the picking of material, sorting and searching for that dubbing bag that disappeared somewhere in the tying table in the mess or tying materials from the last ten different flies you have been tying. I know this from when I tied flies this way. Instead treat your materials with respect, use them effectively and stay organized this way! To say you don’t have time to tie all the flies you need in a row is also an excuse because I most certainly don’t have time every day to tie so many flies. Maybe just a few here and there and by having all the materials prepared like this you can just have a seat and tie one or two when you feel like it. When you are waiting for your computer to start or when uploading pictures and videos or while waiting for a phone call.
When and how to use the stickleback imitation? Well especially during mid-winter the seatrout don’t have that many other options of baitfish then eating stickleback so that is a good time to fish them, preferably with a floating line.
Material list:
Hook: TMC777SP #6 / Partridge sea streamer #4 Thread: Textreme Power tread 50 den. Eyes: chain-eyes 3,6 mm silver Weight: Tungsten sheet Tail & Ribbing: Hares zonker strip Nat Mouse Grey 3 mm, Whiting Spey Rooster Cape Silver Heron Gray Dubbing: Fine UV ice dub pearl, seal fur natural, STF dub white transparent
This seatrout almost the size of my leg was caught on a guiding last year. It was during late April and the fish puked out several fresh sticklebacks while we held it. In warmer water the seatrout prefer eating a lot of baitfish, this one really went all in on stickleback in shallow water. You should see the hapyness of the guy who caught it, he was jumping up and down at the shoreline beside me :)
Because there already are such good step by step instructions on this well-established fly pattern as speykutlingen is I will just roughly show how to tie one and give special attention to the parts unique to my way of tying them.
First of the tail is in two parts, first some rabbit fur and then a spey hackle. I prepare them all at once.
One feather is tied in as tail. Attached eyes with the characteristic slant-eyed look.
Tying in a small sheet of tungsten arc underneath the eyes to the very front of the hook so you get a jigging effect.
I mix three kinds of dubbing in an electric coffee grinder for it to be perfectly blended. I do a lot at the same time.
Prepair a dubbing loop for the zonker hair and spey hackle ribbing. Then dub the body.
I split a zonker stripe in half to 1,5 mm wide because then it is perfect to use in the magic tool without making a to bulky fly.
Put a speyhackle on the magic tool magnum and cut off both ends. You can prepare feathers for al the flies you are planing to tie. By picking the feathers at the same time you can choose them very close to each other from the rooster neck giving you a more even result.
Place the half zonker stripe on top and press down. (if you would like to add extra glitter just place some fine UV ice dub on top of the feather before you press down the zonker stripe)
Twist it hard because you are going to have to brush it quite hard both before ting it in and when it is on place on the body.
And there you have the finished fly. My favorite is to tie them with chain eyes in black but just to look more like a stickleback i made this one in silver. You cant really se it here but the fly sparkles when you look at it from some angles. You can of course add more if you want!
When tied this way and with al the materials prepared it is very simple fly to tie in 4 steps:
1. Make a tail
2. Attach eyes and tungsten
3. Dub the body
4. Rib the body
And you have a finished fly! It then just takes a few minutes each.
I suppose this will create some questions, it is always the most fun if you type them here below instead in a comment in social media so everyone can take part in both your thoughts and also my replies.
I want to give cred to @andreas13andersson for sharing how to make the preparation racks in foam you see in the pictures. I make then in 2-6 mm the thinnest is great for preparing cdc wings for dryflies for example. or here for cutting in small zoner strips.
Here is how @eivind_berulfsen ties the spejkutling. Go and watch it and make your own version of the speykutling. You should definitely check out hes YouTube Chanel for easy step by step video tutorials.
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