Sparkle Dun

Tying steps

1. Debarb the hook and lay a thread base from the eye to the bend. Return the thread to a point about one-third of the shank behind the eye; the wing goes here.
2. Cut a pencil-thick clump of coastal deer hair. Strip out underfur and short hairs with a comb, then even the tips in a hair stacker. Ragged tips make a ragged wing.
3. Measure the wing one shank-length long, tips over the eye. Take two loose gathering wraps, then pull straight down hard to flare the hair on top of the shank, not spun around it. Add several tight locking wraps.
4. Trim the butt ends at a shallow angle behind the wing and bind them down to form a smooth tapered underbody back to the bend.
5. At the bend, tie in a sparse strand of Z-lon for the shuck: half to a full shank length, thinner than looks right. A fat shuck ruins the effect.
6. Dub a slender, tapered abdomen forward to the rear of the wing.
7. Pull the wing upright and build a firm dam of bare thread or dubbing tight against its front base so it stands vertical.
8. Dub the thorax around and in front of the wing base, finishing with a small clean head behind the eye. Whip finish.
9. Push the wing fibers apart with your thumbnail so the hair fans roughly 180 degrees, tip to tip, across the top of the fly. That fan is the outrigger that floats and orients the fly.