FLYMPH FORUM

Silly me! I thought a Black Spider had a black thread base. At least that's what I picked up from the Dave Hughes wet fly book. Last night while reading my North Country Flies book to see how he tied the hackle, whether simply palmered on the hook shank or furled around a thread base.... I noticed the recipe called for either a Pearsalls Brown 17 or a heavily waxed Cardinal 12.

What to you use for the thread body and do you furl starling hackle or substitute a black chicken palmered or palmer starling....


Dang... I thought these flies were supposed to be simple. Last year REE did tell me that cobblers wax did a lot of "stuff" to threads.

I cheat. I use Pearsalls Brown silk, waxed to almost black with cobblers wax. I tie in the starling feather by the butt extending over the eye, wrap the thread to the bend and back half way. Then I palmer the starling hackle back to where the thread is hanging, catch it in with the thread and wrap the thread back to the eye in open turns, reinforcing the hackle stem. Make a three turn whip finish, trim the thread and hackle stem and I'm done. Three to four minute fly.

I thought your flies were "scragglier" than that like you twisted your hackle around the thread. Guess I'll have to break the magnifying glass out.

I have a bunch of my versions of a Black Spider and Sylvester Nemes' Mother's Day Caddis set to be used at Yellowstone.

zen - Do you have cobblers wax? If not, send me a quick PM. I can give you a piece of Chris Lee's cobblers wax. Great stuff. Jim also carries waxes at his shop.

REE gifted me with piece of cobblers wax back when I ran a soft hackle swap on a different fly board. Our discussions started then and progressed thru two WFFC fly tying expo's in Ellensburg where Ron was tying soft hackles. Ron is an excellent fly tyer.

What I don't have is brown silk thread. I imagine I'll find it in West Yellowstone in a week.

Most of the time I follow the recipe. Sometimes when tying really small ones(20-22 is small enough for me) I'll use Griffiths sheer 14/0 black. The ones I tie in smaller sizes I use for stillwater fishing.

Smuggler wrote:Most of the time I follow the recipe. Sometimes when tying really small ones(20-22 is small enough for me) I'll use Griffiths sheer 14/0 black. The ones I tie in smaller sizes I use for stillwater fishing.

What do you use as hackle for the #20 and under flies? Hen hackle?

If I can't find a starling feather that will cooperate I'll opt out for hen.

zen leecher wrote:Silly me!

Not at all. You are not the first and will not be the last to make that one.
I mean why call it a black spider when the dang thing is coloured brown and kind of iridescent green/dun grey??
I guess it has a lot to do with how brown silk looks when it is wet, it gets darker- near black almost.

So tie it with brown silk to be "proper & traditional", but do not throw away the ones you tied with black thread- they will catch fish as well.

They will be re-named the uber-black spider.