The most famous of the North Country spiders, fished on Yorkshire rivers for two centuries and still the best Large Dark Olive pattern going. Yellow silk barely shaded with blue-gray fur, and a turn of soft waterhen hackle that breathes in the current like a drowning dun's wings.
1. Thread — Attach yellow silk (or 8/0 yellow thread) behind the eye and wrap a slim base to just past the midpoint.
2. Body — Dub the sparsest possible wisp of blue-gray mole fur onto the silk — the yellow must glow through — and wrap a slim body over the rear two-thirds.
3. Hackle prep — Take a slate-colored waterhen (moorhen) marginal covert and stroke the fibers perpendicular.
4. Hackle — Tie in by the tip and wind 1–1.5 turns only. Sweep the fibers back and secure.
5. Head — A small, neat head. Whip finish and a touch of cement.
hook
thread
body
hackle
Baetis rhodani
