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| The Teardrop Spey Tube Fly can be tied in a number of hot color combinations |
Simple and quick to tie, the Teardrop Spey Tube Fly mimics the "tear drop" shape of a classic spey fly pattern. It incorporates into its design select marabou with its
characteristic long/thin barbules (which is perfect for making a tear drop shape) and long flowing Lady Amherst feathers
The Teardrop Spey Tube Fly uses the Eumer Tear Drop brass
“hybrid” bottle tube (Ball and Nubby brass tubes can be substituted/see below) and Eumer inner plastic tube “liner” which allows the fly
to be tied in front of the metal bottle tube (and finish with a small tying head). The Teardrop Spey Tube Fly works well on the swing not only
for steelhead, but also for smallies, brown trout and salmon.
The Teardrop Spey Tube Fly
Tube: Brass Eumer
Teardrop (22 x 4 mm/metallic silver finish) and Eumer stiff plastic tube liner
(.07 inch outside diameter/1.5 inches long) which comes with the Eumer Teardrop.
The rear of liner tubing is melted slightly to hold snugly up against rear of the
Teardrop tube. Liner tubing extending in front of Teardrop tube is then used to
tie fly on.
The tapered design of the Teardrop tube puts the center of
gravity toward the front of the fly (under the base of the Spey Hackle) which
balances the fly and keeps it “swimming” level on the swing. This is
problematic with straight metal tubing which can experience unnatural rear
“hang-down” on the swing.
Canadian Tube Fly Company Nubby Tube or Eumer Ball Tube can
be substituted for the Eumer Teardrop Tube (body is wrapped over the front
“ball” component of these tubes).
Thread: White Bennechi,
12/0 or Uni-Thread, 8/0
Body: Wapsi Pearl
Palmer Chenille (medium size) wrapped to approximately 1/4 inches in length to form "prop" to support spey hackle. Spirit River Lite Brite (pearl green) can also be used when "loop" dubbed as a body.
Inner Hackle: Natural guinea feather hackled through body which also helps to support spey hackle.
Spey Hackle: (Inner
to Outer) Spirit River UV2 or Hareline Extra Select White Marabou (3 inches long) folded back and
wrapped, Silver Krystal Flash (4 inches long) tied in the "round", Silver Doctor Blue Lady Amherst
Tail Fibers (3 1/2 inches long) tied in the round or spun in a dubbing loop. If spun in a dubbing loop it is recommend to add a small base amount of dubbing in the loop (Ice Dub or angora fur) to control the Amherst fibers when spinning the loop. Adding more than one material to a dubbing loop is called a "composite" loop.
Head: Threaded
and lacquered head (1/8 inches long). If tyer is unable to attain small finished head, adding a cone, disc or bead can cover up unsightly/bulky heads and also make the fly more durable (see below).
Front Cone, Disc or Bead (optional): Pro Sportfisher (see right menu bar) has a good variety of cones, discs and beads including: Brass Pro Cone or Brass ConeDisc (medium), Plastic Pro
SoftSonic Disc (xl) or Brass Pro Flexibead (5 or 6 mm). Note: Pro SoftSonic Disc can either be mounted permanently
on tube or “line-mounted” on the river. Using a Pro Cone/ProConeDisc or Pro Flexibead provides
additional weighting to fly (for higher/deeper flows).
Junction Tubing: Canadian
Tube Fly Company solid fuschia Flex Tubing (9/16 inch long) slid over rear of
Teardrop tube.
Hook: Partridge
Nordic Single tube fly hook, #MM3STBN, size #8, connected to rear of Eumer
Teardrop Tube via junction tubing (hook eye is inserted into junction tubing).
By making the junction tubing connection longer you can locate hook further
back for “short-strikers”.
Comments: The finished fly measures approximately 4 1/8 inches long
and can be tied in smaller/less dense versions for low water steelhead and inland trout.
For higher/stained flows, tie a thicker body with denser guinea feathers and marabou spey plumes. Rubber legs can also be added to the Teardrop Spey Tube Fly to "move fish" in high/dirty flows. The Teardrop Spey Tube Fly can be tied in an endless number
of color combinations (see below).
Some hot color variations (junction
tubing/tube/guinea feather/marabou/Krystal Flash/Lady Amherst
tail fibers):
-transparent red junction tubing/metallic gold tube/pearl chenille/natural guinea/silver doctor blue marabou/pearlescent Krystal Flash/orange Lady Amherst
-transparent orange junction tubing/metallic gold tube/pearl chenille/natural guinea/hot chartreuse marabou/pearlescent Krystal Flash/orange Lady Amherst
-transparent blue junction tubing/metallic gold tube/pearl chenille/natural guinea/hot orange marabou/pearlescent Krystal Flash/blue Lady Amherst
More detailed information on tube flies for Great Lakes
Steelhead can be found in John Nagy’s classic book “Steelhead Guide, Fly Fishing
Techniques and Strategies for Lake Erie Steelhead”.
