The Lady Caroline Fly.
Step by Step Guide
Instructions on tying one of our favorites,
the Lady Caroline.
Courtesy of our friend and master tier, Stuart Foxall.
Wind on your thread onto a nice spey style hook
Tie in some oval gold tinsel to the rear of the shank and flat gold tinsel to the front
Tie in a golden pheasant breast feather as a tail
Spin some olive seals fur dubbing onto the thread into a fine rope
Wind the rope onto the shank to about the rear third of the body
Tie in the grey spey hackle by the tip (on the original it was heron but I'm using blue eared pheasant here)
Carry on with the olive seals fur dubbing up the rest of the shank
Wrap five turns of gold tinsel in even turns along the body
Wrap the oval gold tinsel in-between the flat gold tinsel in even turns
Scrub up the seal’s fur to give it a shaggy look
Wrap the spey hackle along the shank and tie it off at the head. Pull all of the fibers downwards to give us space for the wings to be tied in
Tie in a golden pheasant breast feather at the head
Wrap the hackle around the shank and pull the fibers downwards again
Find two matching bronze mallard feathers
Prepare two slips of the mallard from each feather
Moisten the tying in point of each slip at the tying in point with spit. This will lubricate the thread and stop it from pulling the wings out of position
Tie in the second set of slips over the top of the first. This will give you a much stronger wing for fishing ith that won't slip
Snip off the butt ends of the mallard and whip finish the head... then varnish
If the wing is tied correctly you should have a keel-shaped wing like the underside of a boat. This will make the fly fish correctly in the water