Hackle Stacker Adams

(Click on picture to see step by step pictures on how to tie this fly.)

Fly Tying Demonstration by: NIFTY Member Mel Robinson
Demonstration Date is December 8, 2014
Tonight’s Fly: Hackle Stacker Adams

Materials:

- Hook: Daiichi 1180 #10 to 24
- Thread: Grey Uni thread size 8/0
- Tail: Mix of brown and grizzly hackle fibers
- Body: Adams grey superfine dubbing
- Wing: brown and grizzly roster hackle
- Head: tying thread
 

About the Fly:

The hackle stacker fly was devised by Bob Quigley, using a paraloop technique for winding the hackle around a post and then pulling the post over the top of the thorax. This pattern is intended to match a mayfly and can be tied in various colors to match different mayflies..
This is primarily a trout dry fly, fished in the film with a drag-free drift.
 

Tying Instructions:

Start the thread near the eye of the hook and wind back a quarter of the hook shank.
Select a brown hackle and a grizzly hackle, pull off some of the fibers and tie in on the top of the hook shank as a tail that is as long as the hook shank. Put a turn of thread under the tail at the barb of the hook to lift the tail.
Dub a tapered abdomen of grey dubbing from the tail to the half-way point of the hook shank.
Tie in the brown hackle and the grizzly hackle at the front of the abdomen.
Make three dubbing loops of tying thread around your index finger so that each loop is the same size.
Dub a thorax forward from the abdomen and bring the thread back to the hackle tie in. Leave a little dubbing on the thread.
Put your index finger in the thread loops and pull upward. Wind the hackles together around the thread, using another finger to keep the hackles in place as you pass the hackle from hand to hand to wind on the tight loop. Start at the bottom of the loop and wind up the loop.
Wind enough hackle on the thread so that the wound hackle is as long as the thorax, then wind the hackle back down the loop to the body.
Holding the hackles, remove your finger from the loop and pull the thread loop to the rear of the fly. Slide the hackles down the thread loop and tie off the hackles at the base of the hackle post. Pull the hackle stems back as you tie them off.
Dub the thorax forward to behind the eye, leaving the thread behind the eye. Trim the remaining hackles.
Grasp the loop and stroke the hackles back. Pull the hackle fibers back and hold them back as the loop is pulled down over the eye. Tie off the loop at the eye with two turns of thread, and tug on the loop to tighten it down before adding further thread wraps.
Pull the hackles and loop back and wrap thread over the front of the loop to lock is down. Form a head, sip off the loop, and whip finish.