Rod is well-known in the Australian fly fishing world. He was a prominent guide and member of a number of Government committees and groups involved in our trout fishery. He was for a time President of the Australian Trout Foundation. Rod is a very keen fly tier and has designed a number of very effective flies he uses regularly in his fishing and guiding. Here is his orange spinner. (Some perceptive readers may recall that this fly was used many years ago as our Fly of the Month, but it’s a very attractive fly and not too difficult to tie, so we thought it was worth another look.)

Materials for Rod’s Orange Spinner:

Hook: Kamasan B400, sizes 12 & 14
Thread: Orange Pearsall’s Naples (or orange 3/0 Unithread). Three black Microfibbets.
Tail: Orange Pearsall’s Naples.
Hackle: Good quality well-marked Furnace cock hackle.

Tying Notes:

  1. Tie in three black Microfibbets, using the thread to ensure the three tail fibres are widely spread in typical mayfly fashion.
  2. Then continue winding the silk to form a typical tapered mayfly body.
  3. Tie in the prepared hackle feather and wind it on. Ensure the hackle placement leaves room for a larger than normal head. The dark centre of the furnace hackle gives a good representation of the dark thorax of the real insect.
  4. Whip finish the fly and add a drop of head cement.
  5. Then trim off the bottom of the hackle so that the fly sits flat on the water surface. Ideally, the remaining hackle should be about half of the hook gape.