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Tying the Black Shrimp salmon fly
Category: Fly Tying Tutorials
Inserted By: Lawrence Deans - June 26th, 2007
This article has been read: 5607 times.

The Black Shrimp

Intro: The Black Shrimp is a variation on the normal shrimp type flies such as the Usk Grub or Curries Red Shrimp. The following photographs and text describe the fly being dressed one step at a time. As an aid to visibility clicking on any of the pictures will open up a larger image. Incidentally, a number of years ago, the Black Shrimp dressing and materials were personally confirmed to me by John Cathcart, Inverness who designed this pattern. The original, and often on small sizes to this day, used a black cock hackle for the tail.

Materials

Tag:
Tail:
Rear Body:
Rib:
Middle hackle:
Front Body:
Head hackle:
Cheeks:
Head: Silver tinsel (optional)
Black squirrel tail or hackle
Golden Yellow floss
Silver tinsel
Orange cock hackle
Black floss
Black cock hackle
Jungle cock (optional)
Black

Click for full size

Wind the thread to the bend of the hook catching in a piece of silver tinsel on the way. Form a tag with about four or five close touching turns of tinsel, trim off the excess and catch in another piece of silver for the ribbing. One piece of tinsel could be used but this causes an unsightly bump at the tag of the fly. This happens when you turn it back on itself towards the eye in order to align it for the ribbing. You may discover that using a second piece eliminates this bump as it is already pointing in the correct direction after tying in.

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Next select a small bunch of squirrel hair and catch it in for the tail, after trimming tie this down tightly with sparse turns of thread. There are two parts to the body of this fly and it is helpful to trim off the excess tail at the middle of the shank, as shown. This creates a small step for the middle hackle and also helps to keep both halves of the finished body reasonably level.

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Catch in the golden yellow floss along side the previously tied in silver tinsel. Note the step in the body for the middle hackle and that almost two thirds of the shank remains clear. This allows us plenty of room for the hackle, the second half of the body and the head. If in doubt it is best to leave too much space for the head rather than not enough.

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Wind on the yellow floss and follow with three or four turns of silver tinsel. Try to finish your last turns of floss and tinsel underneath the shank where you can neatly trim them off. With foresight you can pre-judge your turns of floss and tinsel to stop at a point underneath the hook. This allows plenty of space for the middle hackle and helps create a neater fly.

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After trimming off and binding down both the yellow floss and silver tinsel catch in a pre-prepared orange cock hackle. If you draw the fibres forward in a V shape this will aid the hackle winding process and help create the slim look required.

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Trim off the excess stalk at the thick end before winding three or four close touching turns of the hackle round the shank, gently draw back the fibres as you go. Trim off the excess hackle tip, and then catch in a piece of black floss and a piece of silver tinsel for the rest of the body.

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Wind on the black floss and if possible slightly taper it down to the head area. Follow this with about three turns of silver ribbing then trim off both materials underneath the hook shank and tie down sparsely.

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Prepare a black cock hackle by drawing back the fibres to a 90-degree angle to the stalk. Tie this in and then draw the fibres back into a V shape as with the middle hackle. This is rather tricky and requires gentle pulling on the hackle tip with one hand while the fibres are drawn backwards with the other hand. Too strong a pull and the stalk will break or pull free.

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Wind the hackle round the shank with close touching turns drawing the fibres rearward for that slim look. Draw back the fibres with each successive turn will help keep them aligned. The black hackle fibre tips should reach beyond the point of the hook for best results masking the rest of the materials. River Ness salmon, arguably the hardest salmon in the world to catch, seem to prefer a slim sleek shrimp fly.

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When winding the hackle try not to wind any of the turns on top of the previous turn. The original fly was finished off with Jungle Cock cheeks although we have seen just as many fish caught on flies without cheeks.

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Whip finish or half hitch, seal the head with clear varnish or dope and finish with black or clear varnish. The picture opposite shows the top view of a fully dressed fly finished with jungle cock cheeks tied with a winged style.

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Body tip: Building up a layer of thread onto the hook shank before catching in anything helps provide grip and prevents materials slipping on the shiny surface. The fly should also hold together longer when savaged by the specimens we try to catch.

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