Double Legs

Double Legs AKA Drop Dead Legs

Daniel Smith

Double Legs is a Swedish fly pattern originated by Erik Andreasson, and its construction and appearance draws traces back to many well known Scandinavian patterns such as Ullsocken, The Omoe Brush and many others featuring double or triple hackles, again having the Irish shrimp flies as their ancestors.
While trying to trace the origins and history of the fly, which I saw first on Facebook tied by Swedish Daniel Smith (the post has unfortunately disappeared), I found a few references to Erik Andreasson, and on the site Invicta Flies I saw it titled as a Dalby Dribbler variant.

Now, the Dalby Dribbler

is a fly that I know! That fly is tied by my good friend Mark Vagn Hansen, and was featured here on GFF many, many years ago. Reading that reference, I could clearly see the similarities. The colors and materials are different, but the construction and profile is very much the same. The Double Legs has the addition of a bead, and while the Dalby Dribbler is a saltwater fly imitating a small bug or shrimp, the Double Legs is much more a caddis larva or emerger.

The bright green color

is very common in the non-cased caddises, and even the egg laying adults will often feature this green colored tag. So the Double Legs pattern can imitate several stages of these very common insects.

Lake fishing

Daniel Smith

I would not hesitate

fishing it in the salt, but as Daniel Smith notes in his Swedish article on the pattern (unfortunately gone), the fly is an excellent stillwater fly and also very useful in streams where Daniel has pursued grayling with the fly - and with good luck.

The fly is an easy tie

with no intricate steps or materials. There's some variation in the materials depending on who ties it. The original tied by Andreasson uses peacock herl for the body and black hackle and no bead head, while the alternative version tied by both Andreasson and David Smith, which is shown here, has a hare's mask body and partridge hackles as well as a bead for weight. I personally like both versions with a slight preference for the weighted version, but the variations just show that there's an opening for interpretations and possible adaptations to match the naturals in your waters and your fishing style. You can basically use what you have as long as you keep to natural colors and soft and not too long hackle feathers.

Step 1 - bead	Step 2 - weight
Step 3 - press wire	Step 4 - start thread
Step 5 - cover wire	Step 6 - start tag
Step 7 - tag done, tail	Step 8 - fold tail

Martin Joergensen\' - Martin Joergensen

Step 9 - tag and tail done	Step 10 - rib	Step 11 - first hackle	Step 12 - tie in
Step 13 - wrap hackle	Step 14 - dub thread	Step 15 - dub body	Step 16 - rib
Step 17 - second hackle	Step 18 - wrap hackle	Step 19 - finish and varnish	Step 20 - done

Martin Joergensen

Beaded Double Legs

Daniel Smith

Fishing the fly

is much as you imagine. In stillwaters you can fish it on the bottom using a sinking line or leader and letting it go to the depths, slowly retrieving it with the figure of eight technique or simply move it by lifting the rod tip or pulling the line. In running water you can fish it on a floating line, cast upstream, mend and let the fly drift just under the surface, being extra alert when the current catches it or you start lifting it for the next cast, inducing that attractive and very emerger-like upwards motion in the water. Tying both a beaded and an unbeaded version will let you vary the depth of the fly in different current speeds.

Tie a bunch

Daniel Smith