Can someone describe a reverse spider please? Or post a pic or a link to a pic? I hear a lot of people mention them for searuns but I haven't found one in any of my books or on any websites. My typical searun pattern is a standard Knudsen's spider, or a close variation.
Easy. Basically a Knudson's but after tying in the tail, and the chenille, wind forward, and tie the hackle in facing forward, or if you want, face clumps of fibers forward. Then wind the chenille forward, and tie off.
There is also a version of this where the chenille is started from the front of the fly, and the fly is finished in the hook gap.
I wish I had a link for you. If you want I can send you one or draw a picture over a cuppa joe, or pick me up for a day of SRC fishing, and I will provide the reverse Knudson's.
Thanks for the reply. I have tried the other version you mentioned, finishing the fly on the gap. It worked ok, but I prefer the standard tied with a maribou tail. I hear more people mention the reverse spider than the standard so I might try it.
I found a few cutts in the river about a week and a half ago, but in the last few days they seem to have disappeard.
I might be acting a little picky here but when I showed Mike Kinney my version he just about died laughing. There are 2 things to remember on this pattern:
1. Use a 200R hook sizes 6 and 4
2. Only wrap chenille 2/3 of the body in a carrot shape. Mike had a emphasis on having plenty of hook left to penetrate the S.R.C's mouth.
If you want to duplicate the original pattern you would also use a sparse tail curving upwards and finish by hand whip finishing at the butt not at the eye. Check out "Hooked on Flyfishing" video series featuring Mike Kinney.
I've only seen this pattern used once and that was on TV. Les Johnson was fishing for sea runs in the lower Stilly. He was knocking em dead. But it was TV. You have to hunt all day for them to show on TV.
Mike Kinney and Les Johnson used to work together at the Swallows Nest back in the day. Now Les is at Harry's..err..I mean Patricks and Mike is at Geek...I mean Creekside in Issaquah. If you go to Creekside, they will let you rent the vid. Mike is rowing down the Stilly and Les and somebody else is casting repeatedly to the rip rap for SRCutt's.
This is prime local broadcasting of two great fishermen.
"Mike forgets more fishing stuff in a day than most people can remember in a lifetime" -Pete @crkside
I ran into Les Johnson three times on the Stilly last year. He gave me two of his reverse spiders and I kept them as reference because that is the one fly he said works the best. He had a whole box of them so it is definitely not a fluke that he is always fishing with them. I actually took some to Alaska with me and when the fish seemed to be picky I tried one up there. I actually hooked a monster King on one. The guys in my group asked what I was fishing with and when I showed them a reverse spider they all look at it and said “I don’t have anything even close to that!” I tie them with orange Amherst and black and white Amherst and then use either Black, Blue or yellow Chenille on the body.
Does anyone have an actual photograph of this one or where one might be found? I've tied-up various flies based on verbal and written descriptions but would like to see if there is a "standard" pattern. thanks.
I don't know if there is a picture for that one. But you can get them at Hook,Line,and Sinker. Just East of Smoky Point. South East corner of Sr 531 and 51st Ave NE.
Just a couple of points on tying the Reversed Spider:
Tie the tip of the hackle (duck flank, Amherst tippet, golden pheasant tippet) in immediately behind the eye of the hook, with the tip pointing aft and the quill pointing out over the eye and curving down. After securing the hackle you can cut the tip away, wind the thread back to a point on the shank in front of the hook point and tie the tip in for the tail. As pointed out above, the total body length should be only about 2/3 of the shank length.
Wind the hackle on from front to back, each turn immediately behind the one in front. It helps to fold the hackle and to stroke the fibers forward while winding the hackle on. Secure it and clip off the excess. Start the chenille at the mid-point between the tail and hackle. Wind it forward over the base of the hackle and right up to the eye. Reverse the chenille and wrap over the first wraps and back to the tail. This accomplishes two things; the first wraps help to force the hackle into a narrow cone and to support them in the water, and overwrapping the chenille forms a nice taper in the body.
The last step is, of course, to do a whip-finish at the rear of the body. If the fly is going to come to pieces, this is where it will happen, so a drop of head cement here is good insurance.
I was just over at Patrick's and apparently Les Johnson and Preston Singletary have been hard at work. The boxes are full of reverse spiders in a couple of colors and body styles. I was told the both of them taught the house tier how it's done. For all you non-tiers, strike while the iron is hot! :THUMBSUP
1) shape the body much more carrot like. Taper the chenille which would be fat at the eye and thin at the tail.
2) use less tail and make sure to keep it on top of the hook shank.
Also make them a little shorter, just to keep from getting short strikes which is all so common with SRC's.
3) only use 2/3rds of the shank for the body so there will be enough to hook properly.
Otherwise, nice work. Did you whip finish by hand?
Thanks for the tips! I will give them all a try as soon as I get offline. :BIGSMILE And, yes, I whip finish by hand--no tools involved. That's not because I don't have a whip finish tool, but because I haven't mastered the one that came with my Cabela's tying kit. :BLUSH
in the above photo it looks like the hackle is wrapped around the hook, kind of like a collar. is that true? also, would it be rude or improper to ask the address/phone of patricks? jer
Yes, the hackle is wrapped around the hook behind the eye like a collar. Doing that can be a bit of a pain, though--for the novice that I am. As far as the address/phone for Patrick's, here it is:
Tied about a dozen spiders, reverse spiders today. I'm having a hard time with a whip finisher on the reverse spider with all the feathers in the way. anybody got an easy solution? UNNO YT
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Washington Fly Fishing Forum
1.8M posts
21.3K members
Since 2000
A forum community dedicated to fishers, anglers and enthusiasts in the Washington area. Come join the discussion about safety, gear, boats, tackle, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!