Published Aug 9. 2004 - 20 years ago
Updated or edited May 10. 2024

Spotless fly

This fly is called Twospotted Fairfly. The two spots in the name comes from the bait, which it is supposed to imitate: the twospotted goby. Gobies are a common kind of fish in the shallow parts of almost all bodies of water.

Fur
Sculpin flies
Sea trout flies
Zonker strips
Martin Joergensen
Spotless
Martin Joergensen

This fly is called Twospotted Fairfly. The two spots in the name comes from the bait, which this fly is supposed to imitate: the twospotted goby or Gobiusculus flavescens in latin.
Gobies - which are much like sculpins - are an extremely common kind of fish in the shallow parts of all bodies of water - fresh and salt, still and running.
This particular species is extremely common in the shallow spring water in the Baltic area, and is one of the many items on the menu for sea trout.
There's a great picture on Fishbase.org

I have had good success with my old Fair Fly, which on a good day can easily be taken for a goby, but after having seen my girlfriend Birgitte's snorkeling pictures of the twospotted goby in its proper environment and heard her accounts of its large numbers, I wanted to tie something that was a little closer in size and color.
That meant a larger fly than my usual Fair Flies and a color scheme that was lighter than the nutria or mink I usually use for that pattern.

I dug into my storage of fur on skin and found a piece of rabbit, which I judged to have a suitable tone of brown. I usually defer from using rabbit for zonkers. Rabbit is too long haired for my general size of flies. But as this one was to be a bit larger, I thought less of hair length and more of color.

Next step was dubbing. My stock of Scintilla hid a suitable hue. Last was the hook, and after a few boxes had been turned over I found a box of size 2 of one of my favorite streamer hooks the Kamasan B800. The last bits: eyes and rib was collected, and I was ready.

Large
Up to dry
Martin Joergensen
Twospotted Fair Fly
Pattern type: 
Cold saltwater fly
Originator: 
Martin Joergensen
Species: 
sea trout (sea run)
Materials: 
Hook
Kamasan B800, size2
Thread
Tan 6/0
Rib
Medium oval silver tinsel
Body
Tan Scintilla or similar dubbing
Wing/tail
Light brown rabbit zonker strip
Eyes
Bead chain eyes
Hackle
Hair hackle made from rabbit hair from zonker strip
Head
Dubbed rabbit hair from zonker strip
Skill level/difficulty: 
Medium
Instruction: 
  1. Start the tying thread a bit behind the hook eye. You need space for the hair hackle and eyes in front of this point.
  2. Tie in the ribbing under the hook shank.
  3. Cover it with tying thread all the way to the hook bend. Open turns are OK
  4. Dub the body with an even, slightly conical, layer of dubbing up to the tie starting point
  5. Prepare a strip of rabbit by removing the fur from the tip 2 millimetres
  6. Tie in the strip
  7. Pull the strip to the rear, separate the fur right over the hook bend where the rib protrudes
  8. Take one tight turn of rib over the strip and under the hook to secure the rabbit
  9. Continue ribbing forwards in about five open turns
  10. Make sure you open the fur and turn the ribbing tightly over the skin itself
  11. Tighten the rib on the upwards move of the turn to avoid having the skin strip curl or rotate
  12. Tie down the rib and trim it
  13. Tie in the eyes on the underside of the hook shank just behind the hook eye
  14. Make sure there is room for a hair hackle between eyes and body
  15. Secure the eyes with figure-of-eight turns and maybe a drop of varnish or instant glue
  16. Take the thread back to right in front of the body
  17. Make a large loop for the hair hackle and mount a dubbing spinner in the loop
  18. Cut the hair off 1-2 centimetres or ¾ inch of the rabbit strip
  19. Mount the hair in the dubbing loop. A bit of hard dubbing wax can aide this step
  20. Make sure the hair is trapped by the base and trim the stubs if needed
  21. Spin the loop to form a hair hackle
  22. Stroke the hairs back and take two or three turns in front of the body, but behind the eyes
  23. Tie down the hackle and trim the remains
  24. Dub the thread sparsely and cover the base of the eyes with dubbing
  25. Whip finish and varnish in front of the eyes

Eyes for you - The eyes are mounted under the hook shank and covered with fur dubbing.
Martin Joergensen
Rabbit strip DIY
Rabbit skins are really one of the least expensive materials you can buy. They come in a wealth of colors - natural and dyed - and can be found in many craft shops, hobby shops, furriers etc. Many shops even sell half and quarter skins, which enables you to buy several colors and qualities for the price of one whole skin. And buying skins will give you a foundation for zonker strips, rabbit leech strips and dubbing.
I cut strips by hand, but with a simple method that enables me to cut narrow and straight strips without any special tools.
I arm myself with a razor blade or a scalpel. It has to be new and very sharp. Apart from that I use my vise, which I rotate to clamp horiontally.
Now I find the direction of the hair on the skin, select a spot along the edge where I have hairs pointing straight away from the edge, and clamp this spot into the vise with the skin side up.
Now I pull the skin towards myself and press a corner of the blade through the skin close to the vise jaws and draw it steadily towards myself. I start about ½-1 centimetres from the far edge, and I don't cut all the way to the near edge. I usually cut several strips whithout moving the skin in the vice. As long as you can hold the cutting line tight it works. Leave the strips in the skin until you need them. They steady the skin for cutting more strips later on.
You can read much more about zonker strips here.
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