Baetis nymph step by step
Much more fun than watching the telly
Starting
Tie in approx 4-5 strand of pheasant tail (work out the length first)
Then tie in a piece of copper wire
Dub some pine squirrel quite thinly
Wind forward to about 3/5ths of the length of the overall fly.
Put some fox squirrel onto thread, be careful it falls off pretty easily, you could wax it, but i feel it creates lumps.
Create a loop with the thread and using a dubbing spinner spin the fox squirrel so it becomes spikey but tight on the thread.
Wind back from the eye of the hook, brushing the fibres forward as best you can, then tie off at the meeting point with the Pine squirrel
Fold pheasant tail back to form thorax cover and tie in with 2 turns of thread
Take pheasant tail to back of fly and catch in with the copper wire, if you tie the wire in on top then you get almost a full turn under the pheasant tail before it catches, kicking the tail up nicely.
Wind 4 turns of wire up to back of thorax and tie in
Finally whip finish , pick out most of the hair from the thorax with a needle so its scruffy and then varnish.
I hope you enjoyed that as much as i did, sad bugger that i am
Sandy