Introduction:
When I started tying flies 27 years ago, there were no digital resources like YouTube or Instagram to guide beginners. My setup consisted of a Sunrise vice, a handful of tools borrowed from my mom's sewing kit, and a step-by-step book on tying traditional trout flies.
Patterns such as the Alexandra, Ke-He and Royal Coachman provided countless hours of frustration at the vice. They were challenging ties even before you considered the materials. Living in Potchefstroom, the local carp fishing shop certainly wasn't the place to find essentials like jungle cock or seal's fur.
With the Junior World Fly Fishing Championship taking place in Ireland this year, we received a number of orders for the materials and fly patterns commonly used on the Irish lochs. It was the perfect excuse to revisit the classic wet flies that had fascinated me since those early days behind the vice.
One pattern that kept coming up was the Dabbler. Unlike flies such as the Alexandra, which follow a fairly fixed recipe of colours and materials, the Dabbler is better thought of as a style or platform that lends itself to countless colour combinations. It doesn't imitate a specific insect or aquatic creature. Instead, it belongs to the family of traditional wet flies, designed to be fished on or just below the surface with movement that provokes an opportunistic take rather than matching a particular hatch.
The material list below is what we use in the shop for the Claret Dabbler. Once you've tied a few of them, don't be afraid to experiment. The Dabbler is an incredibly versatile pattern, and popular colour combinations include Claret, Sunburst, Olive and many others.
The two defining features of any Dabbler are the buggy dubbed body and the distinctive Bronze Mallard overwing. Get those two elements right and you're well on your way.
Hook
A standard wet fly hook in sizes 8–12 is ideal. For the fly shown below, I'm using a Mouche 8427, although the Hanák H230 is another excellent choice.
When selecting a hook, I look for the following:
Thread
For this fly I used Power Thread 50D in White.
It is a GSP thread that is incredibly strong for its diameter, lies flat on the hook and is easy to split when required. One characteristic of GSP threads is that they can be quite slippery, but there are a few simple ways to manage that, which we'll cover during the tying process.
Tail
A small bunch of fibres from either Pheasant Tail or Bronze Mallard.
Ribbing
A fine tying wire that is strong enough to securely reinforce the hackle and improve the durability of the fly.
Body
Traditionally, the body is dubbed with Seal's Fur, although a good seal's fur substitute works perfectly well. I also like adding a small amount of UV dubbing to the blend to give the fly a subtle sparkle.
Hackles
An Indian Cock Cape dyed to suit the colour variation you're tying.
Overwing and throat
Bronze Mallard. This is one of the signature materials of the Dabbler and plays a major role in creating its distinctive profile and movement in the water.
Finally, keep a block of thread wax nearby, particularly if you're tying with GSP thread—as well as some UV resin or head varnish to finish the fly.
With the materials ready, let's get cracking.
Fig 1: Secure the hook in the vice and secure the thread. It’s a good habit to keep the thread as flat as possible throughout the entire construction of the fly.
Fig 2. Cover the entire shank of the hook with thread as you go back to the bend. Stop right at where the bend starts. Take your Pheasant Tail or Bronze Mallard (here I’ve used the latter) and measure the tail length to match the straight part of the hook shank. If you measure, you’ll have consistency in your flies. Secure the tail right on top of the hook shank, where your thread base stops.
Fig 3. Cover the excess Mallard as you go forward and trim off the excess, and tidy up. Notice the low bulk build-up from the flat thread. Leave your thread here.
Fig 4. Secure a piece of wire on the side of the shank all the way back to the base of the tail. Notice the flat thread and how translucent the Power Thread is.
Fig 5. Dub approximately 75% of the hook shank. Here I’ve used a mixture of Seal’s Fur dubbing in Claret and Fulling Mill’s Purple UV Peacock Dubbing.
Fig 6. I like to brush the dubbing out a bit at this stage.
Fig 7. Tie in a small-ish Indian Cock feather. Here it’s important to remember you’re tying with GSP, so if you just go over the hackle stem 4-6 times it will slip when you start to hackle. So what I like to do is secure the hackle stem with your normal 4-6 wraps, then pick up the stem and wrap around the hook shank twice and pull hard. This grips the hackle a lot better.
Fig 8. Trim off the excess stem.
Fig 9. Grab the end of the feather with a hackle plier and wrap rearwards in the same direction as you wrap your thread. Notice that I coloured the white thread black. This makes sure we don’t have white thread sticking out under the fly later on, but the black ink makes the thread slightly tacky too.
Fig 10. Wrap the wire forward, also in the same direction as the thread. This traps the hackle in place. If you find that you’re trapping hackle fibres with your thread, wrap quickly, as this seems to trap fewer fibres. Secure the wire in the front and remove the excess hackle and wire.
Fig 11. Tie in another, larger hackle. Once again, wrap 4-6 times over the feather stem and then twice around the shank. Give it a good pull to secure. You can cut off the excess stem too (I forgot to do it before taking the photo).
Fig 12. Before wrapping, put some wax on your thread. Now wrap the hackle 2-3 times around the shank, moving very slightly forward. Secure and trim off the excess.
Fig 13. Flip the fly around and tie in a Bronze Mallard throat that extends just past the hook point.
Fig 14. Tie in a Bronze Mallard wing that extends past the hook bend, but not further than the tail.
Fig 15. Colour the thread black again, wax the thread and flatten it by spinning it counterclockwise, and tidy up the head. Make sure you can get your tippet through the hook eye. Whip finish.
Fig 16. Apply your favourite varnish or UV resin, and you’re good to go.
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