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Spinner Reverse

Fishing

Spinner Reverse

By Luca Montanari

A selective trout, which repeatedly refuses
our flies, is often one of the most fascinating adversaries and is worthy of being challenged by us. Such a fish keeps us busy: we have to put into practice a whole series of devices, which is the fruit of our experience, in order to entice it to take. The most common devices include offering the trout a selection of flies, which normally differ in colour, size or type of feathers being used. We practically pay all our attention to detailed shades of colour, all of which involve the same kind of assembly, and so we neglect what really compromises the imitation’s resemblance with the insect: the hook.

Just observing an artificial fly on the surface
from the point of view of the fish, we can easily
see how often some parts of the hook are visible.
In particular, the strange bent outgrowth at the
abdomen’s extremity, ending with the hook point,
is a kind of danger signal to the trout. It brings
back memories of shock and surprise from the last
time it met with such an “insect”, and
therefore our fly is sending all the signals for
refusal. The search for a solution to such a problem
has triggered the creation of lifelike artificial
imitations by innumerable fly dressers: the result
has been obsessive research for tying techniques
and an ability to show off the imitative qualities
of their flies to the maximum. Such research is aimed
at hiding the hook to make it less visible. This
brought about the birth of several “impressionistic
flies”, or at least, more complex ones.

These minute objects are sometimes more suitable
for adorning walls in our homes, or as framed items
at an exhibition, rather that being effectively useful
for the solution of difficult situations on the river
banks. By this I do mean that any fly structured
in an elaborate way is destined solely to have a
unique place inside a fly box merely to be shown
to friends for the purpose of arousing their admiration
or curiosity. More than once, I have in fact realised
that a smart imitation can be decisively appetising
for a trout. Their suspicion appeased, they will
come to attack such unusual silhouettes, provided
that the elements that could be danger signals for
the fish are concealed.

Materials List:
Hooks:
Mustad
80050 sizes 14-18
Thread:
Red
Tail:
Coq
de Leon
Abdomen:
Pearlescent
tinsel
Wing:
Light
brown Cul de canard
Thorax:
Dubbing
of light brown arctic fox fur
Hackle:
Natural
red

I also realised that some artificial patterns, despite their extremely intricate and complex appearance, only require a modest effort and short dressing time. Amongst these I was surprised by the case of the upside-down tying technique. The resultant flies offered the great advantage of placing the hook on the surface upside down, with the point towards the sky. To the eyes of the fish, the abdomen hid all of the bent part. In this way, the fly can hide the part that frequently alarms the fish, causing them
not to rise. Trout were persuaded to take the fly, even if they had already shown reluctance of accepting a very likely imitation made along traditional lines.

The Dressing
The fly, which I propose to dress in the photo sequence, presents a small up-wing fly in the spinner phase, such as an Ephemerelia ignita or a Baetis. These are insects that are common in European waters, prevalently hatching in the period from the beginning of spring throughout summer.
Tying
instructions:
Step 1:

We start the dressing of such an imitation by inserting
the hook onto the vice jaw, so that a good part of
the bend stays free. We then wind the red thread
on to the shank in order to secure four or five “Coq
the Leon” hackle fibres just after the point where
the bend starts. Such a high number of fibres for
the tail may seem too much if we aim at creating
an exact imitation, but if we want the tail part
of our fly to have good floating capabilities we
must not make this too sparse.

Photos
and fly by Luca Montanari
Step 2:

We then attach to this point a piece of flat, medium-width
pearlescent tinsel. After having created a slightly
conical underbody with the red thread, we wind
the tinsel two thirds of the way up the hook
stem to make the “Spinner Reverse” abdomen.

Step 3:

Now clamp a small bulldog clip onto the tips of two light brown “cul de canard” feathers (the feathers must be arranged one-on-top-of-the-other). With a pair of very sharp scissors trim away the feather fibres caught by the bulldog clip close to the point where they are attached to their stalks. We invert the hook in the vice so it is upside down and we tie in a small hackle of a natural red cock neck in front of the fly abdomen. Then form a dubbing loop with the red thread, in which we insert the blades of the bulldog clippings holding the cul de canard fibres.
Step 4:

Make a few turns of the dubbing spinner to increase the tension on the thread, then we slowly open up the bulldog clip whilst removing it from the red thread loop. The thread will spin itself around the freed fibres to form a CDC rope.

Step 5:

Now we wind the CDC rope tightly along the central part of the front third of the hook stem, pulling the soft fibres upwards with the left-hand fingers after every turn in order to create a feathery tuft of CDC pointing upwards
from the shank. .
Step 6:

Having tied off the loop and trimmed the excess, we wax the red thread and dub it with a small quantity of light brown arctic fox fur in order to create a thin and compact dubbing for winding an imitation thorax, crossing and winding around the wing structure as we do so.

Step 7:

We take the hackle point with the hackle pliers and palmer it through the thorax to build the legs, which will assist the balance and floatation of the pattern.

Step 8:

We make the head of our fly with some turns of the red thread and then we whip finish it.

Step 9:

The Spinner Reverse is now ready for the next fishing trip. It’s very useful for catching a selective trout that refuses our traditional flies.

Luca
Montanari

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