The yellow-red-yellow wing of the classic Mickey Finn is now just light-dark-light - here white-some•color-white - creating a generic bucktail streamer
Medium
- Start the thread in the front of the hook, leaving a little space for the head
- Tie in the oval tinsel under the shank and cover it in touching turns to the hook bend
- Take the thread back to the tie-in point in touching turns
- Tie in the silver tinsel and wrap in touching turns to the hook bend and back, creating a smooth and fully covered body
- Tie down the tinsel and trim
- Follow by the rib in open turns. A long streamer hook probably requires 8-10 turns of rib
- Tie down the rib under the hook shank and trim surplus
- Create a cylindrical, non-tapered foundation for the wing
- Tie in three very small bunches of bucktail - light-dark-light
- Prepare each by cutting off a bunch from the skin
- Remove short hairs and any underwool by firmly grabbing the tips and pulling the stems
- Hand stack by pulling out the longest hairs and aligning the tips with the bunch
- Repeat pulling out the longest hairs and aligning until most of the tips are nicely aligned
- Remove any crooked or stray hairs
- Measure the length of the wing. It should be about 1½ shank lengths
- Grab the butts at this length and cut off
- Tie in right over the end of the tinsel body with a couple of semi-tight thread wraps
- Make sure the bunch is on top of the shank and not rolling, spreading or flaring
- Tie down the butts with a few very tight turns
- Prepare the next bunch like the first
- Remove a few of the thread wraps and place it exactly on top of the first one
- A couple of emin-tight turns and then some tight ones
- Repeat with the last bunch in the same manner
- When all three sit there, form a head as small as you can, whip finish, cut thread and varnish
| Hook | Ahrex NS118 Classic Streamer #2 |
| Thread | 6/0 black |
| Rib | Medium oval silver tinsel |
| Body | Medium flat silver mylar tinsel |
| Wing | Three very sparse bunches of bucktail, 1½ times shank length, light-dark-light |
