I thought I'd get the ball rolling for the new year.
The Polar Extreme Pot Belly pig is a Pot bellied pig variant by a man called David Ballingal – he’s a regular contributor on one of the salmon fishing forums. I’m hoping these will do some damage in the spring.
Tube – 22mm Eumer brass crayfish tube.
Tail- black boar bristles, black bucktail, black artic fox
Rear Hackle – black saddle cock hackle
Rib – medium oval tinsel
Body – yellow spectra dubbing
Body hackle – fluorescent yellow cock hackle
Front hackle – hot orange cock hackle
Cheeks – Jungle cock
Cone – extra small brass cone
I’ve used a Eumer 22mm brass crayfish tube. These are really good they come in a set of ten tubes, ten liners and ten extensions to hold the hook of your choice. I go for a Partridge big mouth double with tubes.
I’ve used the HMH vice adaptor and a eumer tube needle. Slip the liner onto the needle then the brass tube onto the liner.
Burr the end of the tubing with a lighter and then put a spot of super glue onto the liner tubing and slide the bass tube back to the point where the tubing is burred. Then put another dab of super glue onto the end of the brass tube and then slip on the wider tubing.
Take the whole thing off the vice and turn it round and put it back onto the needle. The point where the needle diameter changes will hold the tube in place and the superglue applied to the liner will prevent it spinning when the thread has tension on it.
I’ve used 17/0 uni white thread for this fly, it is very thin so makes the body of the fly very slim when tying in lots of materials but you’ve got to be very gentle so as not to snap the thread. Tie in the thread and take it down to the smaller diameter at the rear.
Dub a small tag of the fluorescent yellow spectra dubbing
Tie in four or five black boar bristles three times the length of the tapered section of tube, and take the thread back to the front of the tube and trim off the excess. Apply a coat of superglue at this point to secure the boar bristles.
Tie in some black bucktail the same length as the boar bristles. Again use some superglue to ensure that it is secured.
Then tie in some black artic fox half the length of the bucktail and boar bristles.
Tie in two strands of silver crystal flash either side of the tail, these should be the same length as the bucktail and boar bristles.
Tie in a black cock saddle feather and double the hackle.
Use four turns of the saddle hackle and tie it in.
Fray the end of the oval tinsel to give the thread something better to bite on. And then tie it in. Select a fluorescent yellow cock hackle and tie it in by the tip at the tail of the fly.
Dub the body with the yellow spectra dubbing and then palmer the yellow hackle down the body doubling the hackle as you go.
Secure the hackle using the oval tinsel and tie it in.
Select a hot orange hackle the slightly longer than the yellow one and tie it in by the tip. Double it and wind on five turns. Secure it with the tying silk.
Select two jungle cock feathers just shorter than the hot orange hackle and trim the fluff from the stem.
Tie them in one at a time forming a V over the top of the body of the fly. Sloping out the way slightly.
Whip finish and apply some varnish to the head.
Slide the extra small conehead onto the liner tube and apply a dab of super glue to the head.
Push the cone onto the head of the fly and hold it there for a few seconds until the glue takes hold. Be extra careful not to use too much glue or else either the hackle will end up sucking up the glue or the glue will seep out from the front of the cone and you’ll get your fingers stuck. Then take the fly off the vice and trim the liner tubing until about 2mm protrudes from the front of the cone.
Burr the end of the tubing with your lighter and make sure that there is still an opening to get the Nylon through and that’s you finished.
And there are the three little pigs!
Enjoy!
Only a few weeks and they'll be getting a swim.
Cheers
Matt
