Hairy Mary part 1

The Hairy Mary

Body tip: After catching in the thread covering the hook shank with even turns of thread will help stop materials slipping round the hook when catching them in. Some flytyers tie materials straight onto the bare shank following along on top of this with the thread. This can cause problems for inexperienced flytyers with materials slipping to the side of the hook shank. The rib or body material can also be pulled out from under the thread by a sharp toothed fish.

Click to open a new window with full size picture	Materials for the Hairy Mary Tag: Gold tinsel Tail: Golden pheasant crest feather Body: Black floss Rib: Gold tinsel Hackle: Blue cock hackle Wing: Brown hair Head: Black
Catch in the thread as usual and prepare a bed for the materials. Take the thread up to the bend and back again to the eye end.	Click to open new window with full size picture
Click to open new window with full size picture	Catch in a piece of Gold tinsel for the tag at the eye end and bind down to the bend. Trim off the loose end. The tinsel opposite has no bed of thread underneath and may easily be pulled out by the fishes teeth.
Wind the the tinsel, five or six times, with close touching turns round the hook forming a neat tag. There are two or three different ways to do this depending on the hook, and if you wind to the left or to the right. Choose any method that suits you and your single, double or treble hook. There is no right or wrong way to do this as long as you end up with a nice neat tag.	Click to open new window with full size picture
Click to open new window with full size picture	After creating the tag instead of trimming off the end you can use it to form the rib provided it's long enough and hanging out to the left. (Right handed tyers, and shown opposite) If it's hanging out to the right it will have to be doubled back on itself creating a bump on the body. In this situation you are better trimming off the loose end and tying in a fresh piece. This is all dependant on how the tag was created in the first place, which you should discover.

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Crest tip: Wet the selected feather and take a whisky glass, first drink all the whisky in the glass and if you feel like it have another. Secondly stick the damp feather to the contours on the inside of the glass, allow to dry naturally and the crest feather will end up with a beautiful curve on it.
Some anglers believe the smell of the whisky attracts the fish ;-)

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