Tying the No Hackle Dun

 

Materials

 

Hook: TMC 100BL size 12-20, or similar light weight 1X fine dry fly hook.

Thread: UNI 8/0 waxed. This thread is important, and works best for this fly.

Tail: Dun Microfibbets or Coq de Leon, the stiffest part of the feather from about half way up to the tips.

Wings: Slips cut from “matching” mallard wing primary feathers. There is, in reality, no such thing as a truly matching pair of feathers, but try to cut your slips from the same area of the same feather from each wing. Green wing teal wings are excellent as well, especially for sizes 18 and 20.

Dubbing: Use any loose bulky dry fly dubbing that traps a lot of air, colored to match the naturals you're trying to imitate. Floatation is everything with this fly. Don't use Super Fine or fine dubbings in general. If the body is too compact the fly won't float well.

 

 

I love to fish dry flies on Spring Creeks. I can't imagine being without this fly, it's that good. This dun imitation will work when all others have failed. It's primarily a flat water fly, but I've used it in pocket water to fish the glides near the banks and done very well, even with no rising fish!

 

I'm not going to sugar coat it; the no hackle can be somewhat difficult to learn. Don't get me wrong, you can do a reasonable version of this fly that will catch fish like crazy without losing a lot of brain cells or practicing for days. But if you want to tie it the way Rene Harrop and Mike Lawson do, with upright wings that exhibit what I call the “Dumbo ears” effect, the beautiful flies that grace the fly bins of their respective shops in Last Chance, Idaho, it will take a little bit of work. The nice thing about their versions of the original Swisher-Richards pattern is that the fly's visibility on the water is greatly improved.

 

 

 

 

Step 1. Start the thread just behind the eye and wind back to where the bend starts, leaving the tag end of the thread long. Build a small thread ball at the bend and wrap forward again. Harrop and Lawson do a dubbing ball back here and that's fine too. I can get the same results without the bulk, and I'll show that method here.

 

 

Step 2. Attach 6-8 Coq de Leon fibers or 4 microfibbets at the front of the fly so that the tail will be about shank length when complete. Wrap the thread halfway back to the bend, binding the fibers down on top of the hook. Split the fibers evenly by taking the tag end of the thread forward and then binding it down on your side of the hook with several wraps, under tension. This will cause the near bunch of tail fibers to flare toward you, and lock them in place. Hold the far tail

fibers up a bit and wrap the rest of the way back to the thread ball, guarding against thread torque pulling them down as you go.

 

 

Step 3.The results should look like this. Note the near 90 degree spread of the hackle, important for floatation. I can get 90 degrees with microfibbets, with no bulk at the tail.  

 

 

Step 4. Here are left and right quill feathers cut from a pair of mallard wings. Don't use the first primary quill from each wing, save them for practice. Pull off the rounded base fibers on the bottom of each feather.

 

 

Step 5. Cut a slip from each quill. The slips should be about ¾ to 1 shank length wide.

 

 

Step 6.  Wind the thread to the eye, and then back toward the tail about 6 turns. Put the slips together, back to back, and cull out a fiber at a time with scissors until both are equal in width. Then grasp them between your index finger and thumb, making sure the tips are sticking out forward as shown. Their butt ends will separate, and you can now straddle the hook. Settle the split fibers down on the shank so you are now grasping the shank as well as the fibers. The leading edges should be just behind the eye. Tilt the tips forward and begin to horizontally wrap around the slips and shank.

 

 

 

Step 7. Work the thread around the eye and between the far slip and your index finger. Do one or two light taps in a rearward direction on the other side of the vise, just enough to move the butts of the feathers. This crimps the leading edge of the slips somewhat. The thread never goes between the slips at any time during these wraps.

 

 

 

Step 8. Bring the thread in front of the stem of the vise and do one or two more rearward tugs. These are not strong tugs, very light tension, just enough to crimp the slips a bit more.

 

 

 

Step 9.  Now take thread straight forward and complete the first horizontal wrap, using lots of tension. Think of this as an ordinary pinch wrap around the slips and shank, but done horizontally instead of vertically. Tilt the slips forward as you wrap. Do two of these horizontal wraps, then four more tight vertical wraps, wrapping up toward the eye of the hook. Pull down and back to tighten these last four wraps, pinching with the left hand as you pull. While you do these vertical wraps, resist the tendency of the far slip to get pulled under the hook, with your forefinger, all the while tilting the slips forward. If the far slip gets pulled under the shank, you're done, cut another pair of slips.

 

 

 

Step 10. If all has gone well, your slips should look something like this, mounted vertically, with the far slip not pulled down and trapped underneath the shank. Cut the butts and fold the remains back. This collar will be useful later. If the wings are together, separate them out with your scissor tips. Take the thread up to the eye, in front of your collar.

 

 

 

Step 11.  Move the far wing out of the way with your left hand, as you bring the thread up underneath the near wing. Loop around the near wing and take the thread forward to the eye. Don't use too much tension here, but do try to bring the wing forward a bit with this move. Take two wraps just behind the eye.

 

 

 

Step 12.  At this point, both Lawson and Harrop take a loop around the far wing, from the top, and bring that wing forward. I've not had good success doing this, and just couldn't get good symmetry between the two wings. Instead, I like to reverse the thread at the eye. This enables me to come up underneath the far wing, just as I do on the near wing. Reversal involves nothing more than creating a loop in the thread under tension and winding backwards over that loop, winding toward you over the shank. After four winds or so cut the loop off and wind the thread back to the eye. Take the thread underneath the far wing, loop around it, and then back to the eye, being careful not to overdo pulling the wing forward. Then two reverse wraps behind the eye and we're ready to reverse the thread back.

 

 

 

Step 13. Reverse the thread back to normal and cut that loop off. Wind back up to the eye. This is important. Everything needs to start from the eye because we don't want to influence our nearly perfect wings with further wraps. Now take the thread under the near wing and make long diagonal wraps back to just short of the tail. Be careful to avoid the slips.

 

 

 

Step 14.  Here's how it looks from the top. I've avoided messing with the slips completely.

 

 

 

Step 15. Here is the other side of the fly. Notice how the bottom of the far wing extends below the shank, and there is a nice concave “Dumbo ears” effect even on the far wing. I found it difficult to get this without the thread reversal.

 

 

 

Step 16. This fly must be dubbed robustly to help floatation, as opposed to most hackled dry flies where we want a tight, slim body dubbed with minimal dubbing. Twist the dubbing onto the thread somewhat loosely, to trap air.

 

Wind back to the tail then dub forward being careful not to have the dubbing catch in the wing fibers and pull them astray. A couple of things that can help with this are physically moving the slips out of the way as you dub, or applying glue to the inside base of the wings. I used to use thinned Dave's Flexament for this. I recommend doing this if you're just starting with these. Let it dry. This creates a glossy surface at the bottom of the wings and the dubbing won't catch the wing fibers as easily. Now I don't use any glue though, practice has made it unnecessary.

 

Dubbing is not criss-crossed between the slips. Once you can no longer force more dubbing against the back of the wings, take the dubbed thread forward on an angle to behind the eye of the hook. If you don't do this, you run the risk of getting into your wing slips. Dub back to the leading edge, then forward to the eye. Whip finish.

 

 

 

Step 17. Here is the side view of the fly.

 

 

 

Step 18. Top view of the fly. Notice how thick the dubbing is, and the taper of the dubbing.

 

 

 

Step 19. The fly from the front.

 

 

Pitfalls

 

Here are some things that I recommend you not even consider trying:

 

1.      Don't coat the backs of the slips with anything, not Dave's Flexament, not Krylon Workable Fixative, none of that stuff. Once the wing splits, and it will, you'll never be able to marry it back.

2.      Don't try to dub the body first and then do the wings. It just doesn't work. Mike Lawson also counsels against it.

3.      Don't even think about using slips that are not perfect in every way. If they have crossed fibers, all hope is gone.

4.      Don't try to mount the wings one at a time. You can get a perfectly matched pair of wings doing this sometimes, if you reverse the thread to mount the far wing then reverse it back to do the near. The problem is getting the two wings placed exactly side by side. It's very difficult, and the percentage of good flies will be low.