The first thing I'd like to say about this fly is that it's NOT an improvement over anyone else's fly. It's a vast improvement over the one's I used to tie when I first started tying, hence the name.



Ingredients for Flukes improved PTN.

Hook: Sprite Sproat size 14
Silk: Ginger/Orange 14/0
Tails: Pheasant tail
Underbody: Fine copper wire
Body: From tail
Thorax: Doubled and redoubled herl from tail
Rib: Fine copper wire from underbody

Tying Instructions:

Tie the silk on at the thorax, make a bed of silk to the start of the bend (two or three turns past the bend, no more) and then tie in approx 6 inches of the copper wire at the thorax - keeping 5 inches loose at the thorax and one inch past the bend to make a rib with.

Take the thread to the bend and then form a neat, overlapping thorax from the 5 inches of wire, taking care to observe a 2/3 abdomen - 1/3 thorax rule for proportions.

Tie in 4, long, pheasant tail herls from the centre feather of a cock pheasant -ensure the tails are no longer than the thorax. Take the thread to the eye then twist the herls together just enough that they don't seperate as they are wound towards the eye - and then wind them towards the eye keeping an even layer of herl along the abdomen and thorax. Tie them in at the eye with a single hard wrap of silk, then rib the whole fly with the copper wire at the tail - taking care not to damage the tails with the first turn of the rib. Secure the rib at the eye with the silk then snap, do not cut, the excess off by wiggling it back and forth until it breaks.

Take the thread back approx 2/3rds of the thorax by going OVER the thorax in a half wrap - this will be hidden in a moment which will not happen if you take the silk under the thorax. Double the remaining herl butts back over the thorax to make a wing case and secure with a single soft wrap, now take the silk back to the eye, again going over the thorax and redouble the herl butts back to just behind the eye. Secure the herl butts at the eye and whip finish.

Note: If you give the silk a good coat of wax just before making the whip finish and make a second whip finish over the first, you can dispense with varnishing the head of the fly. Pictures to follow.