Sillikix

Sillikix

Nick Thomas

Rubber-legged dry fly

Nick Thomas

I like rubber legs on dry flies, they twitch and wiggle as the fly floats over ripples or if you give the leader a lift or twitch now and again. The appearance of something possibly edible helplessly kicking around on the surface is the fish equivalent of ringing a dinner gong.

The Sillikix is not a subtle imitation assembled from a few whisps of feather and fur tied to land softy and unobtrusively as thistledown on a heavily fished stream. No, this one is for wild hungry fish on the lookout for a good feed, it’s definitely more McDonald’s than Michelin. Slap it down, twitch it, dibble it up and down, in fact do whatever you think makes it look like an insect in extremis.

Silicone leg strands form both the body and legs. The round profile makes a segmented body when wound in touching turns, and if you decrease the tension as you wind you can form a smoothly tapered body. The wing of the fly is tied in forward and then folded back between the front legs which forms a prominent head and also splays out the legs for maximum twitchability.

Side, bottom, top

Nick Thomas

Treated with a little floatant gel on the wing the fly is very buoyant and will pop back to the surface if it goes under in a ripple. The trick with poly-yarn wings is to apply a minimum of floatant so the fibres don’t stick together. I put small drop between a fingertip and thumb to melt, spread it into a thin film and then wipe the floatant onto wing like loading a paintbrush. Once the wing is done, pull the legs through the melted gel.

Nick Thomas