Big Hole Demon
A classic for many waters
This fly has been a part of many Danish sea trout fly boxes for a long while. I personally bumped into it for the first time in a classic, Danish book about sea trout fishing by Jan Grünwald, which I'm sure has inspired many Danish coastal anglers. In this book Jan showed two versions of the pattern: a red and a badger. We will show you the latter here, but you can in principle tie the fly in any color(s) you please. Its hallmark is the tinsel back body and the hackled front – not the colors.
The fly is a favored winter fly - especially in red or orange, but also in black&white tied with badger hackle as shown here, which is quite close to the original. The fly is also seen in a pure black version as well as a light brown, sandy or tan color.
Ken Bonde Larsen who has tied the flies that you see here, doesn't tie the fly with any ribbing. The original had rib over the tinsel body and up over the front body to reinforce the tinsel and secure the hackle. Ken in stead varnishes under and over the tinsel, and hackles the fly so that the hackle stem lies in the groove in the thick chenille. This is equally durable.
Many of our flies have been inspired by the style of the Big Hole Demon. Look at flies like Joergen's Demon (and here) and Klympen.
The history of the fly reaches back a long time. It was originally created for Montana’s Big Hole River by Dan Bailey of Livingston, Montana. Back then it was called 1964’s “fly of the year.”, so it's an old boy, which has been appreciated from it's creation. Sometimes the fly is called the Black Hole Demon.
About Big Hole Demon
| Type | Wet fly |
| Originator | Dan Bailey |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Target species | Brown trout Rainbow trout (landlocked) Sea trout (sea run) |
Materials
| Hook | Wet fly hook #8-2 |
| Tail | Two badger hackle tips |
| Thread | Black 8/0 |
| Rear body | Flat silver tinsel |
| Hackle | Badger |
| Front body | Black Chenille |
| Head | Tying thread |
Tying instructions
See image sequence below
Submitted November 24th 2009
Hi Martin,
Atlantic Salmon could also be added to the list of target species. Harry Darbee in his book Catskill Flytier,1977, writes that fishing the Margaree river in Nova Scotia, Canada, one year, no one had taken a salmon in seven days. He tried a Big Hole Demon and immediately hooked and eventually landed a salmon of 22lbs.His friend Mac Francis followed suite right after and got himself one of 13 1/2 lbs.
I think this is one of those flies that travels well.
Peter.