They are quick and easy to tie with plenty of opportunity to be creative. These little flies are real gems; with their soft hackle and sparse body they epitomise the simplicity of fly-fishing with its origins in Northern England that can be traced back to the earliest description in 1807 by a Yorkshire farmer, John Swarbrick. They were later to become known as North Country Spiders. The term spider is a bit of a misnomer as it doesn’t imitate a spider, but rather its design is more a general impression of food – most likely an emerging, stillborn or drowned fly on or just below the surface.
It was only in 1886 that the spider pattern really took off with the publishing of Mr T.E. Pritt's classic book, 'Yorkshire Trout Flies'. There have been many books written about this style of fly since then and with them the popularity grew. I have fished NCS for as long as I have been fly fishing the likes of traditional patterns with silk bodies that come in a wide variety of colour combinations, such as Stewarts Black Spider, Partridge & Orange, Snipe & Purple, Waterhen Bloah, the Partridge & Yellow and others. However, I now tie variations using my own choice of materials - my apologies to the creators of the original flies. In this piece I will highlight one of my variants that has proved it’s worth.
The key to a good North Country Spider is the soft hackle like the Partridge or similar game bird breast feathers, which, when slightly sunk and buffeted by the moving water, creates an irresistible lifelike movement in the fly - movement is life’s. Well tied Spiders are typically designed to have a thin body, allowing them to effectively imitate the bodies of natural emerging flies and nymphs in the water. The inclusion of a bead as in some of my variants, creates an additional trigger through colour and light refraction. The clear bead represents the air bubbles usually associated with emerging insects.
Materials.
* Thread colour of choice.
* Hook, Grip 101101 BL in #14 or similar.
*Glass bead, size and colour of choice. As an alternative I tie some with peacock herl behind the hackle as a thorax.
*Hackle, Partridge breast feather in a size suitable for the hook size.
Step 1. Add the bead to the hook shank and push to behind the eye. Approximately 4mm behind the eye, create a small knob of thread enough to temporarily secure the bead in position using a drop of super glue before adding the body and hackle.
Step 2. Build the body along the shank with thread or material of your choice and tie off behind the bead.
Step 3. Reattach the thread ahead of the bead and secure the hackle shiny side forward, leaving about 2mm for the final finishing.
Step 4. Make not more than 3.5 to 4 turns of the hackle stroking the fibres back with each turn, secure and finish with a neat small head.
This is a picture to illustrate another variation with a clear glass bead and embroidery thread body.
There are no rules for fishing these soft hackle flies but always bear in mind the insect it is intended to mimic and that it will be most successful in attracting fish in the surface film or just below. In my experience they fish well in turbulent water either as a single fly or behind a high floating dry fly tied New Zealand style. Another effective way of fishing these flies is to cast upstream and across and drift down. As soon as the fly begins to drag downstream, skate it across the tail of the pool. Be prepared, the strikes are usually fast and furious.
Peter Brigg
May 2025
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