II have to admit been fascinated by this family of flies, What really fascinates me is the many styles in which it has been tied to be fished in different ways.

These are only a small number of them.

Simple spider - reasonably sparse - Dark Furnace or greenwells hackle depending on what you are imitating.



Simple spider - slighty heavier dressed hackle




Stewart Style




Mike Connors - softwing

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A small ball of hares ear & body guards , stroked downwards with velcro
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top




Mike Connors - softwing, larger throax to sit a wee bit longer in the meniscus

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A large ball of hares ear & body guards, stroked downwards with velcro
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top




Softwing , with split wing on websters style, though using soft coverts from waterhen.

Wing: A few Fibres from Waterhen wing under or over covert
Thorax: A decent ball of hares ear & body guards, stroked downwards with velcro. This I hope will present a very tasty and vulnerable emerger
Fishing: Upstream when fish are active on top



looks a bit of a dogs dooda in the picture, not quite so bad in reality. Whether the loose wing of soft coverts performs better or worse or just differently than the more solid wing styles using the primaries or secondaries remains to be tested. I have tied up a small number of these ranging from 3 fibres each side of the split up to 6 or so on each side of the split and look forward to testing them in a few months time.