Published Oct 31. 2010 - 13 years ago
Updated or edited Nov 17. 2015

Frida

Frida is the little sister of the beloved Grey Frede, and that alone is a recommendation. It's a small and compact, yet shiny fly meant for sea trout, but definitely useful for other species too - panfish in small sizes, bonefish in larger.

Close-up - Looking the Frida straight into the eyes. It\'s a small and compact fly
Eyes
Martin Joergensen

Frida is the little sister

of Frede - the renown Grey Frede, which is one of my all time favorite flies, and certainly one of the patterns that I have caught most fish on. Like the Frede, Frida comes from the vice of Danish fly tyer and fly angler Peter Loevendahl. There's a lot of variations of this fly once you start digging into it, but I take my lead from Danish Thomas Vinges fantastic books on Danish seatrout patterns "Havørred på kysten I & II" (Seatrout on the Coast I & II), due out in German this year as it is. Fabulous books! Highly recommended.

Frida is tied

with the same basic materials as the Frede and does have a resemblance to this fly, but is much lighter dressed and does have that narrow waist that your best friend's younger sister is supposed to have.
The Frida is a small and compact, yet shiny fly meant for seatrout, but definitely useful for other species too - panfish in small sizes, bonefish in larger. If you look at the shape of the fly, it's pretty close to the Bonefish Bitters, and tied on larger, stainless hooks I don't doubt that it would do very fine as a bonefish fly.

Frida does have that narrow waist that your best friend's younger sister is supposed to have

There are color variations

of this fly - as there is of its big brother - but I prefer a grey one, tied with grizzly Chickabou and grizzly hackle. The original is tied in a combination of brown and olive.

Frida
Pattern type: 
Cold saltwater fly
Originator: 
Peter Loevendahl
Materials: 
Hook
Partridge CS45 #2-4 (I used a stinger style hook #12)
Thread
Black 8/0
Eyes
Bead chain, black or chrome 3/32 inch or 2.5 mm
Tail
10-12 straws of pearl flash
Rear body/rib
4-6 straws of smooth pearl flash
Hackle
Grizzly, dry fly quality
Head
Grizzly marabou/Chickabou dubbing
Skill level/difficulty: 
Medium

1 - start the thread

2 - eyes

3 - secure eyes

4 - cut

5 - eyes attached

6 - eyes on

7 - tail

8 - trim

9 - flash

10 - body

11 - tie down

12 - rib

13 - hackle

14 - dubbing

15 - dub the thread

16 - dub

17 - hackle

18 - rib

19 - tie down

The frida - The fly is done and ready for varnish. See materials and full pattern description.
Dorsal view - The Frida is a small and compact fly with a central hackle and a fair amount of shine
Done
Martin Joergensen

Alternative tying method

I find the original method of catching the hackle with the ribbing a little cumbersome, and I have my doubt the the ribbing will last, so I tie my Fridas with a different, easier and more durable method. After having finished the rear body I cut all surplus flash and tie in the hackle. I wind this forward in 2-3 close wraps, tie down and trim. Then I dub the front body over the eyes. This protects the hackle and saves you having to wind the rib through the it and over the head and the eyes. If you want flash in the front as on the original, you simply tie in some flash, twist it with the tying thread and form a head of the flash/thread combo. Make a small whip finish, cut the thread an varnish and you're done.

Clear water - A small fly like the Frida is easy for the fish to spot in clear water like this
Sunny - On a sunny spring day with calm, clear water a Frida may do the trick
Clear, calm
Martin Joergensen

Comments

I like the look of t...

I like the look of this pattern but not sure I can justify adding more flashy bait fish types to my box. It looks like a great pattern in small sizes for dawn and dusk fishing.

very well done. I ...

very well done. I will use this site for my students

.

Log in or register to pre-fill name on comments, add videos, user pictures and more.
Read more about why you should register.
 

Since you got this far …


The GFF money box

… I have a small favor to ask.

Long story short

Support the Global FlyFisher through several different channels, including PayPal.

Long story longer

The Global FlyFisher has been online since the mid-90's and has been free to access for everybody since day one – and will stay free for as long as I run it.
But that doesn't mean that it's free to run.
It costs money to drive a large site like this.

See more details about what you can do to help in this blog post.