Tuesday, May 05, 2015

“Henryville Special”



Fly Tying Demonstration by NIFTY member: “Bill Greenwald”
Tonight’s Fly: “Henryville Special”
Originator: Johnny Utah, utahsflycorner.com

Materials


·         Hook:              Daiichi 1550 / 1560, Dai-Ricki 300, Mustad 3906/3906B Sizes 12 thru 20

·         Thread:            MFC 8/0 Black

·         Body:              Utah’s High test rock worm blend/Super fine olive dubbing
·         Body:              Grizzly saddle hackle. Under sized

·         Rib:                 Fine gold wire

·         Collar hackle:  Ginger or brown hen or rooster hackle

·         Under wing:    Wood duck

·         Wing:              Mallard slips


About the Fly
History of the pattern; where did fly originate; who created it?

The Henryville Special was created by Hiram Brobst and was first fished on the Henryville section of Pennsylvania's Broadhead Creek in the Pocono Mountains, which is a beautiful stream that unfortunately is posted heavily. 


Skills/Techniques used in the pattern;
There are many different body ties for the Henryville special. The original was red floss, then olive soon replaced the red. Then the floss was subbed out for dubbing. The fly can be tied with other colors for the body, from tan to olive, any color you want.

The one factor to tying the fly that I have seen emphasized is that body hackle should not go beyond the gap. In other words no larger than the gap.

What species of fish do you target with this fly? 

 Trout

How do you present this fly on the water?
I fish them dead drift with occasional twitches. I also fish them drowned or diving. It's a great producer.

Tying Instructions:
1. Start the thread and wrap back to the barb.
2. Tie in gold wire on side or bottom of shank and wrap forward to mid-point of shank.
3. Dub the body 2/3 of hook shank. You can taper it if you wish. 
4. Tie an undersize grizzly saddle hackle by the butt, or one size smaller than the gap with dull side facing shank. Palmer the hackle back five turns and catch the hackle with the wire.
5. Run the wire rib up to the hackle tie-in point. Tie the wire off, cut off the excess. Carefully cut off the excess hackle. 
6. Skip this next step if you want it to float high. Take some Velcro and rough up the dubbing in the body. Run your fingers along the body to coax the hackle and dubbing back.
7. Select a small clump of wood duck flank. Tie in the wood duck flank on top of the shank. Have it extend past the body by a little less than half a hook shank. 
8. Select two slips of mallard wing fibers. Have them half the width of the gap. Have the points pointing towards one another. Have the wing extend past the body by a half a hook shank length. Tie them in with the slips tenting the body. Trim the butts of the mallard.
9. Select a ginger hackle. Hen is used as it will give the fly life in and below the film. If you want a high rider that you can skitter, use a stiff rooster hackle. 
10. Tie in the ginger hackle feather by the butt. Snip off the stem. Tidy up. Be sure you have a smooth surface to wrap the hackle on. This is a crucial step to getting a nice hackle collar. Wind the hackle no more than two turns, you want this collar sparse. Tie it off, clip the excess and form the head. Whip finish.
11. Give the head a good coat of varnish to shine it up.

References:
Utah’s Fly Corner
TheFlyManJim.com
www.chriscoole.com
flyanglersonline.com
Global Fly Fishers

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