The Orange Silver

Simple materials - fancy fly

By Martin Joergensen

A fly which is just a piece of imagination created one evenning in march. I have been fooling around with a plain type of steelhead or salmon flies this last year. These are all signified by simple feather wings and the use of classic materials like floss, tinsel and plain feathers. The Cheapskate Heron and the Cheapskate Green Butt are two examples. The aim of these flies is to make something simple which is yet pleasing to the eye and fishable.

The Silver Orange was a continuation of this line of development. The fly has silver phesant sides which add contrast and orange marabou as a throat hackle. The body is silver tinsel with a double ribbing made from twisted floss.

 

Materials

Hook	Plain Salmon hook size 1/ or 2/0
Thread	Black
Ribbing	Black and orange floss
Body	Medium silver tinsel
Throat hackle	Orange marabou
Cheeks	Silver phesant
Wing	Orange swan or goose
Head	Thread

Instructions

1. Start the thread over the bent back part of the hook
2. Tie in the strands of floss under the hook shank
3. Cover floss and hook shank with a smooth layer of thread to the hook bend
4. Return the threat to the starting position, again forming a smooth surface
5. Tie in silver tinsel
6. Wind the tinsel to the hook bend and back to form a smooth silver body
7. Untie the thread over the start of the tinsel and tie down both ends of tinsel
8. Cut surplus tinsel
9. Twist the orange floss anti clockwise

Preparation of the cheeks. Top: the 'raw' feathers Center: plume stripped off Bottom: symmetrically stripped, ready to tie in

1. Wind the twisted strand clockwise over the hook shank 5-6 times
2. Tie down and cut surplus
3. Twist the black floss anti clockwise
4. Wind the black floss closely following the orange
5. Tie down and cut surplus
6. Prepare a generous bunch of orange marabou
7. Tie in the marabou as a large false hackle that reaches just beyond the hook bend
8. Cut surplus
9. Prepare two silver phesant body feathers by removing the webby part
10. Strip barbs on both sides to a length as the tinsel body
11. Put the feathers together curves out
12. Remove the lower front barbs on half of each feather
13. Tie in one feather on each side of the body slanting slightly downwards
14. Prepare two narrow strips of orange swan or goose
15. Remember that the right side strip goes on the left side of the fly
16. Massage the strips to a soft arc
17. Saddle the cheeks with the strips by pinching the strips over the hook shank and tightning the thread down over the wings. The wings should be long enough to reach a point above the hook bend
18. Secure the wings with a few tight turns in front of the first one
19. Form a head, whip finish and varnish