Stewarts Black Spider
Translated by Carl Wuebben
W.C Stewart – Originator
Dave Hughes VersionOne of the first deliberately minimalist wet flies was William c. Stewart’s Black Spider. He was a Scottish lawyer and soft hackle aficionado. He published a book in 1857 called the practical angler, or, the art of trout fishing. Stewart had little interest in making flies pretty for his own enjoyment. His interest was catching fish, and he knew that a simple fly, properly presented, would do the trick. This fly is so simple, it’s probably hard to tie one wrong. Although this pattern calls for brown thread you can also use black as in one of the photos.
PATTERN
HOOK – #12 - #16 Daiichi 1550 or any standard wet fly hook.
THREAD – Brown 70 denier (8/0). You can use black also
HACKLE – Starling
HOW TO TIE
- Debarb hook - mount in vise then start your thread in one eyelet space behind the eye and wrap close thread wraps to mid-shank and back to the starting point.
- Strip the fuzz from a starling feather; lay it on the hook shank with the concave side facing up. Tie it in by the butt with the tip extending past the hook eye. Bind it down with close touching turns and snip the excess stem. Return the thread to the mid-shank area.
- Grab your hackle pliers and grab ahold of the starling feather (by the stem butt) but be gentle – starling stems are fragile. Now take three to five wraps of the feather backward toward mid-shank. Tie off the tip with the thread and snip off the excess.
- Carefully wind the thread forward through the hackle, back to the eye, zig – zagging it to avoid binding down any feather barbs. Make a small head and tie off with a whip finish. Clip your thread and you’re done.
TIE UP A DOZEN OR TWO – AND GO FISHING*** But remember to practice C.P.R. (CATCH – PICTURE – RELEASE)
