The Temple Dog
Not quite like the original
An oldie pattern from GFF
By Martin Joergensen
The Temple Dogs is a series of huge hair winged salmon flies tied on a tube. Tube flies are very popular for large flies in scandinavia, and a tube will enable you to tie a very large fly, that still doesn't weigh too much to be casted.
There's a color photo and a larger B/W JPeg picture of the temple dog
| Hook
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1.5" tube. I make mine from cotton swabs.
Equip with a piece of silicone tubing and single or treble tube fly hook according to taste or rules.
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| Thread
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Black
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| Butt
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Yellow wool (I use the underfur from the icelandic sheep used for the wing)
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| Body
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Silver tinsel
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| Rib
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Oval silver tinsel
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| Body hackle
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Brown cocks hackle
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| Wing
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Polar bear, icelandic sheep (yellow and orange), peacock herl
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| Front hackle
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Furnace hen hackle
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| Cheeks (optional)
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Jungle cock
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| Head
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Black
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- If you use a cotton swab, cut off the cotton and melt the plastic tube lightly in both ends to form a small collar.
- Mount the tube in a tube vice or on a heavy needle in a standard vice
- Cover the tube with a very smooth layer of thread
- Dub the thread with yellow wool and form a small butt
- Tie in ribbing material
- Wind the thread forwards to the front of the fly. Leave space for head
- Tie in flat tinsel for body
- Wind the tinsel to the butt and back again to form a smooth body
- Tie in the body hackle butt first
- Wind hackle to the butt in open turns (4-5)
- Wind the rib the opposte way to lock the hackle
- Tie down rib and cut off surplus rib and hackle
- Tie on the wing, which has to be very long 2-3 times tube length
- Polar bear, remove underfur and short hairs
- Yellow sheeps wool, very sparse but long
- Orange sheeps wool, very sparse but long
- Peacock herl, 6 barbs
- Tie in hackle tip first
- Wind it 3-4 times and tie down
- Tie in jungle cock cheeks pointing slightly upwards
- Finish the fly with a fairly large head
- Varnish several times
The original recipe says that the wing should be tied on in the reverse order pointing forward, and then bent over and tied down. This should give a higher wing and a better profile. It gives me nothing but trouble. I tie in the wing as always: polar bear for support and sparkle, wool for color and movement and herl for flash and a clear, dark line.
 The large tube flies are normally equipped with large treble hooks in Scandinavia. These hooks have been banned on many streams, but they are still the most popular. I don't fish for salmon, but my experience from sea trout fishing has learned me that single hooks catch just as many fish and makes gentle catch and release much easier.
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