Bloody Butcher

Simple hair wing

Martin Joergensen

I personally love

this fly for its colors. Black, red and silver are perfect together and makes the fly very visible and one of my favorite flies for slightly muddy or really turbulent water.

The original is

a wet fly with a feather wing, but as much as I love these beautiful classical feather wing flies, they are not suited for my saltwater fishing. I tie the fly larger than prescribed for the original wet, and with a hair wing in stead of feathers, typically made from Arctic fox. This material is easy to use and has the right texture for a fly this size.

The possible variations

are numerous, and a great alternative is to use a strip of black rabbit and tie the fly as a zonker. You can also vary both the body and the tail and throat hackle. Use yarn or hackle for the tail, tinsel, silver braid or flash chenille for the body and soft or stiff feathers for the throat hackle. The most important issue is to keep the color scheme, which in my eyes is the key to success with this fly.

I like my

Bloody Butchers to be rather meaty and heavy—a real attraction to a hungry trout in the early spring. I also like to add some weight under the body to get the fly to sink readily and to induce a swimming motion to the fly as it's retrieved.

Butcher by the water

Martin Joergensen

The Butcher is

not an imitation of anything that swims in my home waters, but still is a very productive fly for sea run brown trout. I prefer using it when the water is a bit rough with some waves and maybe a bit of dirt. I have also had success with the fly in the early spring, where the bright colors seem to be able to get lazy sea trout moving.

Tying instructions

This sequence shows how to tie the fly with a wing in several sections, This gives a nicer, drop-shaped wing, but also requires more tying steps. You can tie the wing in a single section if you're lazy...

Step 1- thread	Step 2 - cover shank	Step 3 - tail material	Step 4 - tail
Step 5 - trim the tail	Step 6 - tail done	Step 7 - tinsel	Step 8 - varnish
Step 9 - start the tinsel	Step 10 - body	Step 11 - tie down	Step 12 - prepare hackle
Step 13 - tie in	Step 14 - trim stubs	Step 15 - start hackle	Step 16 - 3-4 wraps
Step 17 - tie down and trim	Step 18 - hackle done	Step 19 - first wing section	Step 20 - tie in
Step 21 - fir section ready	Step 22 - second wing section	Step 23 - tie in	Step 24 - in place
Step 25 - trim stubs	Step 26 - second wing section OK	Step 27 - Third wing section	Step 28 - wing done
Step 29 - form a head	Step 30 - whip finish	Step 31 - varnish	Step 32 - done

Martin Joergensen

Fish on!

Martin Joergensen