Green Machine

Transformed from a bomber style pattern, this fly is fished as a wet fly

By Martin Joergensen

The Green Machine is a renown fly in Northern America and Canada. This fly was originally tied as a bomber - a large hackled deer hair fly, tied to be fished dry for steelhead, skating over the water and stimulating some fierce attacks from these scaly silver bullets. The green bomber with brown tufts of hair front and aft was tied on the Miramichi river in New Brunswick for Atlantic salmon.

This version is tied to fish wet. Tied in the low water style with a small body on a large hook, it will dive under the surface in spite of its deer hair body and fairly large and dense hackle. This type of fishing also origins from the Miramichi and is sometimes referred to as "wet bug" fishing. The fly will oftentimes fish right under the surface or even in the film, but by using sinking line or leader, you can bring it further down.

Some tyers opt for a small gold tag rather than the tail, which we have tied here. The tag is less visible, and might be a good option for more spooky fish.

The deer hair body makes the fly somewhat a chore to tie, and we supply an alternative here: a simple, dubbed body. Since the fly is fished wet, the deer hair will have little impact on its flotation, and you can easily exchange the time consuming deer hair body with a quick and dirty dubbed one. If you want flotation, consider using a dry fly dubbing.

Materials

Hook	Low water salmon hook #10-6
Rear tag	Yellow floss
Tail	Bright copper/gold crystal flash
Front tag	Red wool
Hackle	Brown
Body	Green deer hair
Head	Tying thread

Tying instructions
See the images below
The flies in the pictures are tied by Ken Bonde Larsen.




Dubbed body version
Consider using dubbing for the body in stead of deer hair. The difference is difficult to see, and as long as the fly is fished wet, there is no reason to spin and trim deer hair to form the compact body.