June Fly of the Month

Dick’s Foam Hex Spinner

Mike Zicus, BRSC Board Member – Bemidji, MN

I was introduced to this fly years ago when Dick Berge showed us how to tie it and some of his other Hexagenia patterns at a Club board meeting. It was a few years before I tried to reproduce it from memory. As a consequence, I don’t tie it exactly the same way Dick did. It has an extended body, which is tied separately on a sewing needle and then attached to the hook. The fly is durable and floats well even after it’s fooled a few fish. A few years ago, I fished the entire hex hatch with the same fly whenever I needed a spinner pattern. By the end, it was trashed. The tails were gone and the body was shredded but still hanging together, which is a testimony to the durability of Kevlar thread! Best of all, it was still fooling fish! This is definitely a pattern I’d recommend if you intend to fish the “hex hatch.”

Recipe

1. Hook: Tiemco TMC 2312 in size 8 or 6. Dick used a Mustad 94833, but I prefer the longer shanked Tiemco.
2. Thread: Natural-colored Kevlar. Dick used Danville Flymaster Plus. A strong thread helps when tying in the wings. I prefer Kevlar because it is unbreakable and lies so flat.
3. Tails: Moose mane or porcupine guard hair. Prepare a sewing needle that is 1¼ inches to 1½ inches long by cutting the point off (unless you don’t mind finger sticks!). The smaller the diameter the better. Clamp the eye end of the needle in the vise. Start the thread about ¾ of an inch from the vise jaws and tie in 2 tail hairs that are ~3 inches long. Wrap over the hairs while holding them up at a slight angle until you’ve reached the end point, ~ 1/8^th inch from the jaws. The wraps don’t need to be touching. You’re just moving the thread to the rear of the needle.  Make 2 or 3 tight wraps when you’ve reached the end point.  Tuck the tails between the vice jaws. Trim the butt ends.
4. Body: Yellow 1/8^th inch (3mm) foam. Cut a 1¼ inch long piece that tapers from ¼ inch to ~1/8^th inch in width. Next, carefully slice the wide end of the piece in half crosswise with a very sharp blade. The cut will produce two ~1/16^th inch thick flaps and should be about 5/8^th of an inch long. You can make the cut with sharp scissors if you’re careful, but the blade works better for me. Lastly, cut one of the flaps in half. The split-flap side will be the “bottom” of the thorax. Tie the narrow end of the body to the needle with the piece butting against the vice jaws using several tight wraps. These wraps should be at the very end of the foam piece. The foam will have a tendency to twist around on the needle.  Just twist it back. Lift the foam piece and advance the thread using 1 or 2 wraps. Lower the foam and make 2 overlapping wraps to create the first segment of the body. Repeat this process for each segment. You will segment ~3/4^th inch of the foam with 4 or 5 equal-sized segments, so keep that in mind as you create each segment. The last segment should end at the point where your horizontal slice starts. Use overlapping half hitches or a whip finish to complete the body and add a drop of head cement. Pull the body off the needle.
5. Wings: White calf tail. Set the hook in the vice and wrap a good thread base to the midpoint of the shank. Return the thread to ~3/8^th of an inch from the eye. Use a pencil-sized bundle of hair that is ~1½ inches long. Calf tail doesn’t stack well, so pull out any very long hairs and discard or re-bundle them. Trim the butt ends to square them off. Tie the bundle in using very tight wraps with the butts rearward. You want wings that will be ~1 inch long. Calf tail is slippery, so here’s where the Kevlar thread shines. It will not break no matter how tight the wraps are. Advance the thread to in front of the hair bundle and make some tight wraps as close in front of and under the hair bundle as you can. Trim the butt ends at an angle. Move the thread to behind the wing and bind down the cut ends.  Advance the thread to just behind the wing and begin separating the bundle into equal halves using figure-eight wraps. Pull each wing back and down as you make the figure-eight wraps. You want wings that are horizontal and roughly at right angles to the hook shank. Hex spinners fall with their wings in various positions, so the wings don’t need to be at perfect right angles. They should be horizontal though.
6. Attaching the Body: This can be a bit fussy. Start by “dry fitting” the body on the hook. When you have it in the right position, the top flap will extend between the wings and end right behind the eye. The 2 bottom flaps will straddle the hook shank and extend under the wings. Position the thread so it aligns with the last set of thread wraps on the body. Pull the thread away from you so that it’s in between the top flap and the 2 bottom flaps. This will allow you to attach the body by making a couple firm thread wraps directly overlaying the wraps that finished the body. Peel back the flaps and advance the thread a wrap or two so you can create another body segment behind the wings. Repeat the step, this time advancing the thread to a point in front of the wing. The next segment you create will represent the thorax and will be about twice as long as the previous segments. Repeat the process once more, making a small head segment just behind the eye. Whip finish and cement the thread. If things worked right, the wraps advancing the thread between segments will not show. I use a brown marker to put a light stripe down the back. The fish sure don’t care, but I like the look!

Dick Berge is a well-known fly tier from Iron River, WI. The Wild Rivers Chapter of Trout Unlimited has published several booklets with some of Dick’s patterns.

To see our past patterns, click on Past patterns.