The fly you are about to tie is a wool bodied, gold ribbed, palmer type wet fly with a shoulder hackle.

Palmer is an Old English word for caterpillar. A palmer fly is one that has hackle spiraled up the hook shank to give the impression of legs it’s full length. A wet fly is one intended to be fished under water.

You will need a size 10, regular wire, regular length hook, about three inches of medium flat gold tinsel, two rooster neck feathers that have been dyed golden olive, about five inches of Kelly green worsted type yarn, some black nylon 3/0 fly-tying thread, and a smalI container of fly head cement or clear finger nail polish.

You will also need a vise to hold the hook, a small sharp scissors with pointed blades, a toothpick and a dubbing needle. A sewing needle inserted in a small cork for a handle will work fine for the latter. If your fingers are rough or calloused, a bobbin to hold the thread and a hackle plier for grasping and winding feathers will make tying easier.

Place the hook in the vise with its bend between the jaws, the shank parallel to the table top and the hook eye towards your right. A properly tempered hook is apt to break if the barb and point are pinched, so be sure these are visible beyond the vise jaws, then tighten so the hook is held firmly.

Dip the toothpick in fly head cement and coat the hook shank. Fasten the thread near the hook eye by wrapping it over itself for a few turns, then, winding over and away from you, spiral it closely along the hook to a point on the shank directly above the barb and half-hitch the thread. Using the toothpick, put a drop of cement on this knot and some more cement on the winding along the shank.

Let the thread hang. If a bobbin is used, the weight of this will keep tension on the thread. If not, a hackle plier or snap-on clothes pin will serve the purpose. Whatever is used, however, be sure it doesn't hang completely free and spin because this will untwist the thread and cause it to break easily.

You have just made a base for the rest of the material. Without this, anything tied on the hook will slip and turn around the shank. You just can't build a secure fly on a bare hook.

Don't wax the tying thread. Cement can't penetrate wax. Learning to tie without waxed thread will result in much more durable flies. Before nylon was available and silk was used, wax was necessary to retard thread rotting, but with modern synthetics, it's no longer needed.

Next, the body materials should be tied on the hook. A rule to remember about this is as follows. "What's wound on last is tied on first." As the ribbing is wound on last, the tinsel for this should be secured first.

Place the tinsel on the hook so about a quarter inch is resting on the shank where the thread was half-hitched just above the barb and the rest of the three inch length is extending to your left out past the hook bend. Take two turns over the tinsel with the tying thread, pull straight down to tighten, and half-hitch. Cement the half-hitch and let the thread hang with some tension on it.

Next select and prepare a feather for the palmer hackle. Choose one that has fibers that are between one and one and a half times as long as the hook gap. (The distance across from point to shank.) Prepare the hackle feather by grasping its tip with one hand and stroking the fibers towards the butt between the thumb and forefinger of the other to make them stand away from the stem.

Place the feather on the hook with the concave side towards the hook and its tip directly on top of the knot holding the tinsel. The rest of the feather should extend out past the hook bend and parallel to the tinsel. Take two turns of tying thread over the tip, tighten by pulling straight down, half-hitch and cement the knot.

Tying the feather on with its concave side towards the hook makes the feather wind with the legs slanted back. Tying it on with the concave side away from the hook will cause the legs to slope forward. The legs should angle backwards (towards the hook bend) on a wet fly.

Yarn is usually either three or four ply and is prepared by separating the layers. Tie a single ply on the hook the same as the feather and tinsel and half-hitch directly above the barb. This is where the rear of the body will start. Now spiral the thread along the hook to a point a quarter of an inch from the eye and half-hitch. This is where the body will end. Cement both half-hitches and let the thread hang. Coat the shank with cement again and handling the yarn gently because single plies tend to be fragile, wind it along the hook to make a cigar shaped body, a little thicker towards the shoulder than the rear. When completed, take two wraps of thread over the yarn at the front where the thread is already secured, tighten by pulling downward, half-hitch, cement, and cut off excess yarn.

All winding should be over and away from you. By following this rule each operation ties the fly more securely. Winding first one way and then the other will loosen the fly and make it come apart in service.

Next grasp the feathers by the butt, make two or three winds around the hook back of the yarn then wrap it edgewise, making three or four wide spirals towards the hook eye and tie it off, at the same place the yarn was, with two thread wraps and a half-hitch. Trim off the excess feather.

The tinsel ribbing is next. By reflecting its surroundings this simulates the translucent joints between segments of many aquatic insect's abdomens, and when wrapped over both the wool and the palmer hackle, increases the fly's durability.

Wrapping over and away from you, make three winds with the tinsel on the hook just back of the body. This is called a "tag". Then, making wide spirals and at the same time zig-zagging the tinsel sidewise, wrap four turns along the hook to where the body ends. Tie off, cement, and cut off the excess tinsel. The side-ways, wiggling, motion while wrapping helps keep from tying down hackle fibers. If some were tied under, they can be picked out with the dubbing needle now.

This pattern calls for a shoulder hackle, so select another rooster neck feather with fibers about the length of the hook gap. Prepare this one by stroking the fibers toward the butt, then cut the soft fibers from each side of the feather's stem near its butt, leaving a row of short barbules along both sides. The shoulder hackle will be tied on by the butt and the barbs when the knot is cemented, will help keep it from loosening.

Secure this feather, with the concave side towards the hook, by wrapping thread over the trimmed butt and half-hitching where the body was tied off. Cut off the excess stem, leaving about a sixteenth of an inch sticking through for insurance against slipping, and cement the knot.

Hold the feather by the tip and winding it on edge, make three turns just ahead of the body and as close to it as possible. Tie off by making two wraps with thread, pull straight down to tighten, half-hitch and cement. Cut off the excess feather, then build up a head with tying thread and finish off with three or four half-hitches or a whip knot, saturate with cement, then cut the thread.

Remove the fly from the vise. Insert a new hook and tie another. This one will be a lot easier and the third one even more so.

This fly is a variation of the wooly worm pattern. It is known locally as "Bruns bluegill fly" or "green bluegill fly". It is popular for bluegills and crappies, and seems to be especially effective in weedy areas. In smaller sizes, it is a good producer on trout streams from early to mid-season.

By tying this fly, you have learned to prepare a hook so what is tied on will stay in place. You have learned the sequence for tying on and wrapping body materials. You have learned how to prepare and use yarn for a body, how to prepare and wind palmer hackle, how to wind tinsel or other material through hackle without tying the fibers down, how to prepare and wind shoulder hackle, and you now own one or more flies you didn't before. Not a bad Christmas present for yourself, was it?