Tying a killdevil spider?

thehamo

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone knew if there was any instructions online for tying
A kill devil spider? Doesn't look the hardest but would like to have step by step instructions regardless.

Thanks!

slaneylad

thehamo wrote: »

Hi folks, just wondering if anyone knew if there was any instructions online for tying
A kill devil spider? Doesn't look the hardest but would like to have step by step instructions regardless.

Thanks!

Hook size 10 kamasan B175
Thread Brown
Hackle natural red or greenwells
Body 2 strands of peacock herl
Tag flat silver tinsel with fine silver wire over

wgsten

Hook : Kamasan B160 sizes 14/16
Thread : Black 8/0
Body : peacock Herl
Hackle : Medium blue cock (long-fibred)

1 : Tie in thread and wind down to a point above barb and tie in the Peacock Herl

2 : wind the thread forward towards a point just behind the eye (leave room for tying off head)

3 : Tie in hackle then grip hackle and give it three turns

4 Tie off hackle, form head, whip finish and varnish head.

Some patterns suggest a tag of either gold or silver, i never bother with either.

thehamo

Excellent thank you very much. Il be heading down to do some sea trout fishin on the slaney and I believe these are the flies to have! Must get tying now

Kaiser Soze 742

I had most success on the slaney using it with a black hackle and blue guineafowl tail.

J. Ramone

Slaneylad's dressing is the standard on the Slaney and stands the test against any variant. I don't bother with the wire as there is a way of tying the mylar rear body in such a way that it will stay put indefinately.

Commercially tied patterns can be a bit wispy but the preference is for a chunky looking fly. Think of the fly as an oversized Coch y Bonndhu.

Bed the hook with tying thread and tie in a some wide unimylar making sure it is bound down along a decent length of hookshank (from at least halfway to the back) and wind forward from the back of the hook so that it begins paralell to the hook barb. Ensure each new turn overlaps at least two thirds of the previous wrap. Continue and tie off so that the rear body covers about two thirds of the hookshank.

Lay a level bed for the herl body with the tying thread which will reduce the rear body to slightly less than 1/2 the hookshank. At the rear of the level part of the body, trap two peacock herls together on top of the hook so that there are four lengths of herl that you can wind around the tying thread ready for winding up the hookshank to form the front part of the body. The herls should not be too thick in the stalk otherwise the body will look untidy. Snip off the excess herl when you have completed the body ensuring you have a few mil to tie in the hackle. The body should now appear one third silver and two thirds herl

Select a webby hackle, trim the stalk to ensure there is no fluff at the end and tie in at the base where trimmed with three or four turns of thread leaving the thread close to the eye. Wind the hackle towards the eye with the desired number of turns (3-6 depends on the particular hackle and width of the bed). Now wind the tying thread through the hackle for added security zig zagging to avoid trapping hackle fibres as you would when palmering. Whip finish and varnish.

Tied in this manner you should get a few good nights fishing with one fly. The herl should start to look thinner before anything comes apart. At that point I change the fly. I have caught more trout (and a few salmon) on the kill devil spider than any other fly. The only variant I found might be a slight improvement is to use a speckled brown feather from a grouse shoulder as hackle but it has the disadvantage of being less durable. I now sometimes use two turns of grouse in front of a hen hackle.

Hope this helps. Would have liked to do a picture step by step but unfortunately I don't have the set up.

JR

slowburner

Great description of how to tie a wonderfully versatile Irish pattern.
I like to use a gamey blue/black hackle from the neck of a cock pheasant when the trout are on Hawthorns: or grouse, or snipe, as a general fly.
I'm not a fan of cock hackles on wet flies.
I usually omit the silver tag altogether, because I think wire tags can unbalance a fly and cause them to swim with the eye upwards. Some of the plastic based wire substitutes might be a better bet - if you want a bit of bling.
I dub the herl around the tying silk for added strength and run a couple of turns (no more) of the finest possible wire over the body.
I like durable flies, because I believe 'broken in' flies catch more fish.

Is there any truth in the story that the the name is a corruption of Kildavin?

thehamo

Right, so, bare in mind im quite new to this fly tying game ( and not much good at it either) these are my first attempts

J. Ramone

Not bad at all Hamo. They will work! I wouldn't bother with the tail myself though as the lack of a tail is an advantage of the dressing for sea trout as they have a habbit of nipping short at the fly. That's why the flying treble is popular on sea trout lures.

On the subject of hackles, I like game hackles as Slowburner suggests but I find they don't hold shape when subjected to the currents of a big river for a night or two. The best possible hackle to use on a kill devil spider is from a free range rhode island red which is intermediate between an indian/chinese hen and a game bird feather in texture. They are very durable though. Unfortunately I don't have any. There was a time when I wasn't as lazy as I am now and I would get on my bike headed for a farmyard with a scissors and plastic bag in my pocket. Black bantam hen hackles were another gem.

ironbluedun

slowburner wrote: »

I like durable flies, because I believe 'broken in' flies catch more fish.

no doubt about it.....

ironbluedun

thehamo wrote: »

Right, so, bare in mind im quite new to this fly tying game ( and not much good at it either) these are my first attempts

the heads are a little big, you might be using thread that's a bit too thick? a number 8 or lighter would be better. Or it may just be a matter of more practice and reducing the unnecessary turns of thread. If you keep retying the same fly pattern several times over you will notice yourself improving with each time.

slowburner

I agree that the head is a little big, but it's in proportion to the body and the overall 'thickness' of the fly is good.
Tying a neater head will come with practice.
The hackle could be a little shorter, and maybe one turn less.
A rule of thumb for hackle length is that the fibres should not extend beyond the back of the barb, or the throat of the hook.

Much more importantly, the fly has soul, and will catch fish.