Yellow Humpy

Aaron's Notes and Instructions:

This is a hard fly to tie. Describing the tying procedure is equally difficult so take a look at different books that have corresponding pictures to help. The method I used to tie the wings was published in the Autumn 2000 issue of Fly Tyer. The measurements here are critical to get this fly correct. Other online sources of information that may help you picture how to tie this fly include The Virtual FlyShop's article on upright mayfly wings in the "Fly Tier's Bench" area or the www.troutflies.com tutorial on this fly. My version here differs from the traditional methods as I find it easier to get the wings the right length and the hump does not get too big.

Materials General description
Hook: Standard dry fly, size 12-18
Thread: Yellow 6/0 (actually you can use lots of colors or types)
Tail: Moose body hair or deer hair
Wing: Deer hair or elk hair
Body: Working thread over the moose hair tail and dear hair wing(some people tie in floss of the same color)
Hackle: Brown and grizzly rooster neck or saddle hackle feathers

What I Used:

Hook: Orvis #1523 size 12
Thread: Orvis yellow 6/0 waxed thread (It is just what I had, wish I had the Uni-thread)
Tail: Moose body hair
Wing: Coastal deer hair (bleached light)
Body: Orvis yellow 6/0 waxed thread
Hackle: Metz brown and grizzly rooster saddle hackle

Tying Instructions:

Step 1. Fix the hook in the vise and layer it with thread starting from about mid-shank to the start of the bend of the hook and back to mid shank.

Step 2. Clip about 10 - 12 moose body hairs from the hide and pull short hairs from the butts along with any underfur. Align the hair tips in the stacker. Lay the moose hair over the hook shank so that the tips extend a little less than a shank length off the back of the hook. Grasp and pinch the hair at mid shank with your off hand. Tie in the hair at mid shank with tight wraps and continue winding back to the hook bend. As you near the hook bend wrap with looser wraps to keep the moose hair from flaring. Then, wind back the thread to mid-shank again with increasingly tighter wraps.

Step 3. Grasp the moose hair butt ends with your off hand and pull over back to the tail. Wrap the thread over these but ends about half way to the hook bend with tight wraps. Then, clip the excess butts at this point and bind down with more wraps of the thread. When done, wrap the thread up to the 75% point of the hook shank and back to mid-shank. Put some glue on the tail butts and thread to secure it to the hook.

Step 4. Clip a bunch of deer hair from the hide about the diameter of a pencil. You will have to play with this to get the right amount. Pull out the short hairs and the underfur. Align the hair tips in the stacker. With the hair in your off hand, measure a length from the tips to the tie in point that is twice the hook gape. Now place the hair on the hook with the tips pointing toward the eye of the hook and wrap the thread with soft loops around the hair at the tie in point, at the 75% point on the hook shank. Wind the thread back to the 25% point on the hook shank with increasingly tight turns. Apply a little glue to keep the wings from spinning on the hook shank.

Step 5. To make a thinner hump, clip some of the deer hair butts at the 25% point until you get the desired thickness of hair for the desired thickness of the hump. Wind the thread over the clipped butts and back and forth from mid-shank to the hook bend to build up the thread body. Don't let go of the remaining deer hair butts at any time if possible to more easily separate them from the tail. Make sure that the thread is wound back to mid-shank for the next step.

Step 6. Pull the remaining deer hair butts over the top of the fly and over the thread. Tightly wrap the thread over the hump at mid-shank a few times. Again, don't release the remaining deer hair butts to keep them from getting mixed up with the wind. Once the butts are tied down at mid-shank forming the hump, clip the remaining butt and bind them down with the thread creating an area behind the wings to tie in and wrap the hackle.

Step 7. Raise the deer tips by pulling them back toward the hook bend and creating a thread dam in front of them. Then divide the tips into two wings and wrap the thread four times from behind the wing nearest you to the other side of the hook shank in front of the wing farthest from you. Then form a figure eight by wrapping the thread from in front of the wing nearest you to behind the wing farthest from you. Wrap the thread around the base of the wing farthest from you to gather the hairs together, but do not cinch tight to keep the hair from flaring. Then, do the same for the wing nearest you. Finally, wrap the thread a couple times behind the wings and glue the base of the wings to make this more durable and prepare for tying in the hackle.

Step 8. Select a brown rooster hackle feather and a grizzly rooster hackle feather with individual barbs about 1-2 times the hook gape. The fibers should be a little shorter when wrapped around the hook than the length of the wings. Strip the webby fibers from the base of the feathers and tie in the butts on top of the hook behind the wings. The shiny side of the feather should be facing toward you or up. I tie in the grizzly feather first and then the brown feather. Wind the thread to a point about 1-2 eye lengths behind the hook eye. Be careful not to crowd the eye.

Step 9. Wind the brown feather around the hook shank with the shiny side facing forward so that the fibers are swept slightly backward (wet fly style). I wind the feather about four times behind the wing and three times in front of the wing. Tie of the feather at this point and clip the excess. Follow the same procedure for the grizzly feather.

Step 10. Form a thread head. Whip finish and cement.