No 3. Mickey Finn

Mickey Finn

               

Mickey Finn is one of my oldest fly pattern. I started to tie and fish with this fly in the 70's. It was already then a classic pattern with many year on it's neck. However, it still works and it gives me a special pleasure to fish with those Classic pattern. The original pattern was tid with bucktail for the wing but i prefere to use calf tail. I think it works better, special to smaler sizes of this fly. The color combination, yellow and orange or yellow and red, is a combination that attracts almost any kind of fish spices. 

For seatrout, fished from the costal, it is a god fly especially when the water is cold.
The pattern described I have adapted little by my way of tying flies on such I use some straw silver flashabou the body instead of the usual silver tinsel. I think it's easier with flashaboun wrap a sleek body as it fills out against the lead wire better. The original has not either painted eyes but as I really believe in that eyemarks on lures and flies makes them more interesting to the fish than if they did not have it so I add them on this pattern.

Material list

Hook: Streamer,4x long. Size 8-4. Here i have used Maruto I77, size 6

Weight: Flat lead wire

Thread: Black 

Body: 6-10 strands of  common silver flashabou.  

Rib: Oval silver tinsel.

Ving: Yellow and orange (or red) calf tail. 

Head: Black thread

Eyes: yellow and black paint like Humbrol.

Head coat: a thin layer of UV resin. 

Remember that it is not possible to paint the head with varnish containing solvents on the eyes if they were painted with water based acrylic paint. 

That's why I use thin UV resin lacquer

                             

1. Start by wrapping a layer of the flat lead wire around the hook shank. It must cover the hook shank from one to two mm behind the hook eye for one to two mm before the bend.

                         

2. Secure the lead wire with a pair of layers with thread

                         

3. Attach the oval silver tinsel behind the lead wire.  

                         

4. Wind the thread just behind te hook eye and take som strands (6-8) silver flashabou and attach dem just in front of the lead wire. 

5. Take the flashabou and wind them down towae´rd tht hook bend and then back again to the starting point just behind the hook eye. 

6. Secure the flashabou and cut away what is over of the flashabou.         

                           

                       

7. Follow with silver tinsel in 5-7 equally divided turns over the body.

8. Attach and cut of the rest.

9. Now take a small bunch of yellow calf tail. 

10. Place it on top of the hook shank. 

The bunch should protrude about 1/2 the time as far as the hook shank.

11. Attach the calf tail with three to four turns tying thread. 

Try to avoid so that the calf hairs stand out above the hook eye. 

It's very easy to otherwise cover the hook eye with materials that are difficult to remove when the fly is ready. 

12. Now take a thinner bunch of orange calf tail and tie it in on top of the yellow.  

12. The orange bunch should be tied in a little bit farther than the yellow.

13.I use to secure the hair with a little drop of varnish. 

14. Finally finish the wing with a third bunch of yellow calf tail on top of the other two. This one should also be tied in a little bit farther than the orange.

15. Secure the thread after forming a neat head. Cut of the thread anf varnish the head a couple of times. 

16. The fly should now look like this after you are ready with the varnish and it has dried properly.

17. Now it is time to paint the eyes. Take for example a toothpick or another round stick and dip the end into the yellow paint and paint where the eye's yellow basis by just stamp the color

18. Paint the eye's yellow basis by just stamping the color

19. After the yellow paint has dried, repeat it with the black color but with a thinner stick.

20. This is how the finished painting should look like. 

21. Finnaly. Apply a thin coat UV resin over the head and cure it with a UV lamp. 

The fly is now ready.