Tying the Straggle Stone

Hello everyone,

If the weather in your neck of the woods is going to be like ours this weekend, it's a great time to tie some flies. To help you with a little inspiration, Fulling Mill just released one of the tying tutorials I did for them when they visited our shop back in April. This video teaches you how to tie my Straggle Stone. I actually tied the Magneto version of this fly for my very first YouTube video 9 years ago! A lot has changed since then but this fly still works just as well as it did then. The brown/golden stone version is great wherever medium to large stoneflies are found. It catches a lot of fish and is also a good pattern to pack some weight into when you need it for heavy water. The Magneto version was the first variation of this fly that I tied. It is a great pattern for steelhead or just as an attractor pattern for trout. It can also be a great pick when you need a visible pattern for off color water. You can click the image below to watch the tutorial on Fulling Mill's channel. If you need some materials for these patterns, the recipes are below. 

 

Also, I know I will inevitably be asked why I put the shellback on the top of the hook when I tied is fly on a jig hook in the video. If you would like my thoughts on this topic you can read this post from a while back. 

 

Hook: Fulling Mill 5130 in sizes 10 through 14, or sizes 8-12 in the Fulling Mill 5045, Hanak 400, or Dohiku HDJ.

Bead: Copper Tactical Fly Fisher Slotted Tungsten Bead in weight/size to suit your needs. You will likely need a 2.8 mm bead or larger for the wire gauge on most of these hooks.

Thread: Uni 8/0 Camel

Wire: Copper Semperfli or Sybai 0.2mm wire

Shellback: Fulling Mill Bug Back in brown

Legs: medium Montana Fly Sexi-floss in brown, copper, copper brown, or amber. Hareline Life Flex in Brown is also good. 

Body: Fulling Mill Streamer Straggle Micro UV in chocolate brown or golden olive or Hareline Micro UV Polar Chenille in brown.