The December fly of the month is from the creative tying desk of Arvada , Colorado based Charlie Cravens. Charlie is an accomplished fly tying author, fly designer and owner of a great fly shop (Charlie’s Flybox in Arvada, CO – http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/). His website has a great tying reference, with step by step instructions for almost 200 of his designs. If you’re ever in the Denver area (Arvada is a Denver suburb), a stop by Charlie’s shop is a must for any person with interest in fly tying. One of the best equipped shops for tying materials that I’ve ever seen. Charlie was also a guest speaker for FWFF a year or so ago. He had an outstanding presentation and tying demo. Charlie has been tying since he was eight and had the opportunity to fish and work with folks like John Barr (as in the Copper John and many other famous flies). Look at Charlie’s site for a wide range of color combinations to tie this fly for matching the hatch.
Charlie Craven’s Jujubee Midge
Hook: TMC 2488 (or 2457) or similar nymph hook, size 18-24
Thread: White 10/0, 8/0 or even 6/0 for larger sizes for the body undercoat with black 8/0 for the thorax.
Abdomen: Wapsi Super or Supreme hair. Colors in your choice. 2/3 strands of a primary color with a single strand of a ribbing color. For the demo fly, I choose olive primary and red ribbing.
Wingcase: Umpqua Flouro-Fiber (I didn’t have any of this so I used white antron yarn).
1) De-barb the hook and securely fasten in the vice. Wrap an underbody of white thread from about one hook eye diameter behind the hook to about half way down the bend of the hook. Wrap the thread back toward the eye and build a tapered underbody.
2). Group the super hair primary color and add the ribbing strand and tie in the whole group at the thread starting point.
3). Wrap the thread over the super hair , back to the half way point of the hook bend, Lifting up and keeping tension on the bundle so the super hair stay on the top side of the hook. Return the thread to the tie in point near the eye, maintaining a smooth underbody (any bumps will show thru the super hair when it is wrapped over the underbody.
4). Grab the super hair bundle and wrap a smooth abdomen by keeping the super hair bundle tightly grouped and wrapping with touching, adjacent wraps forward to the tie in point near the eye. Wrap four or five wraps of thread to lock the super hair in place. Note how the red super hair has created a ribbing effect. At this point, you could coat the fly with Sally Hansen’s or clear cure to create a super durable fly. The super hair is reasonably tough, so this is an optional step.
5). Clip off the excess super hair, whip finish the white thread, clip the thread. Start a layer of black thread and build a bulging thorax of black thread.
6). Attach the Antron yarn (or Flouro-Fiber) on top of the thorax, bind down toward the rear of the fly.
7). Pull the Antron over the thorax, toward the front of the fly and bind down right behind the eye. This creates the wing case. Don’t clip off the excess antron which at this point is pointing forward over the eye.
8). Using a bodkin, roughly divide the antron into two halves and pull one half to the right side of the fly and the other half to the left of the fly. Create a thread head, capturing the antron so it stays on the two sides of the fly.
9). Clip the antron to create two wing buds, slightly longer than the thorax. Here’s a view of the fly from the top.
10). Whip finish, clip the thread away, and add a drop of head cement to complete the fly.
