The great thing about big streamers is that, because of their bulk, it doesn’t take too long to fill up an average sized fly box. The tough thing about streamers is that it’s easy to lose a bunch over the course of the day. Here’s the Junk Yard Dog to help deal with the loss.

Junk Yard Dog Recipe:

Thread: UTC140 denier, brown

Back Hook: Gamakatsu SP11 3L3H size 1

Front Hook: Gamakatsu B10S size 2/0

Tail: Marabou, tan

Body 1: Polar Chenille, UV Copper

Body 2: Marabou, tan

Body 3: Arctic fox tail, rusty brown

Body 4: Arctic fox tail, dark tan

Head: Senyo Laser Dub, dark tan

Eyes: 8mm Clear Cure Dumbbell eyes, steel

Connector: Beadalon, 19 strand .018″

STEP ONE:  With the back hook in the vise, start the thread and wrap it to about mid-shank. Secure a single marabou feather, leaving it hanging off the back of the hook approximately one shank-length.  Clip the excess about an eighth of an inch behind the eye and bind the feather to the top of the hook shank.  Finish with your thread at the rear of the shank. Then tie in the Polar Chenille opposite a spot between the hook point and the barb, and wrap your thread forward nearly to the eye.  Palmer the Polar Chenille forward, taking care not to bind any of the pieces to the shank.  Once behind the eye secure the material with a few tight wraps of thread, then clip the excess.

STEP TWO:  Make a marabou veil over the back hook.   Prepare the marabou feather by coming down from the tip and trimming  out the top by clipping the center stem at the point where the fibers are long enough to reach past the Polar Chenille once wrapped. To form the veil, hold the marabou on top of the hook shank and use the thread tension to spin the marabou, similar to the way you spin deer hair.  Once the marabou is all the way around the hook shank, carefully trim the butt pieces behind the eye and make a few wraps over them, advancing your thread to just behind the eye of the hook.

STEP THREE: Take a pinch of Arctic fox tail and tie it in with the tips hanging out over the eye of the back hook. Use your thumb to reverse the Arctic fox tail back over the rear hook and then bind it down on top of the shank with a half dozen wraps, creating a tidy bullet-shape.  Whip finish over those wraps and the back hook is complete.

STEP FOUR:  To connect the rear hook to the front hook, use a four-inch piece of 19-strand, .018″ Beadalon, with a few beads to close the gap.  Place the front hook in the vise and secure it with crossing wraps up and down the shank of the hook.  Make sure that the loop is vertical in the back once bound down so the rear hook will have unimpeded movement.

STEP FIVE:  Wrap the thread forward about one third of the hook shank and then add the marabou for the mid-body section.  Take two fluffy marabou feathers and hold them on top of the hook shank, then use the thread tension to help spin them to encircle the shank (similar to the way you formed the veil on the rear hook).  Once the marabou is spun around the shank make a few security wraps before trimming the excess, then wrap over the butt sections.  Figure-eight a set of dumbell eyes on the underside of the hook shank.  The front edge of the eyes should be just back of the eye of the hook.

STEP SIX:  To give the front hook bulk, hollow-tie a fox tail collar.  At about mid-shank take a clump of lighter coloured Arctic fox tail and spin it around the hook shank, with the tips out over the eyes.  Once spun in place work your thread through and make a few wraps at the base of the hair, then advance your thread about to the rear of the dumbbell eyes.  Just behind the eyes spin in a second, darker clump of Arctic fox tail, hollow-tied as you did with the first clump.

STEP SEVEN:  To create the head of the fly, clump-tie in four stacks of dark tan Senyo Laser Dub.  Tie in one stack on top of the hook shank just behind the eyes, then one on the bottom of the shank.  Then tie in a stack on the bottom of the shank in front of the eyes and finish with one more stack on top of the shank in front of the eyes.  Pull all the Laser Dub back out of the way and whip finish right at the eye of the hook.

STEP EIGHT:  To finish the head of the fly, make two cuts.  Hold the Laser Dub vertical and make one cut from the eye of the hook on a downward angle just below the dumbbell eyes, and then make the final cut from the eye of the hook on an upward angle just above those eyes.  The result is a wide wedge-cut head that pushes water and makes the fly move well when retrieved.

Every fly angler who’s ever cast to a persnickety trout knows you can never have too many mayfly patterns, so here’s a proven performer just in case you find yourself at your bench this weekend.

Morris May Light Recipe (by Skip Morris)

HOOK: Light wire standard length to 1X long, sizes 20 to 10.

THREAD: Tan 8/0.

TAIL-SHUCK: Tan Anton yarn (or any shiny yarn).

ABDOMEN: Buoyant tan dubbing (Superfine Dry Fly, Fly-Rite poly dubbing…).

WING: Gray poly yarn.

HACKLE: One, ginger or barred ginger.

THORAX: The same dubbing as in the abdomen.

Tying Instructions:

1. Start the thread about three quarters up the shank. Bind a thin section of shuck-yarn atop the shank; bind the yarn down the shank to the bend. Trim off the front stub-end of the yarn. (Or make split hackle-fiber tails around a tight ball of thread-turns at the bend.)
2. Dub a slim, slightly tapered abdomen from the bend to slightly past halfway up the shank.
3. Double a thin section of poly yarn over the thread, slide the loop of yarn down atop the shank directly in front of the abdomen, and bind it tightly with a few tight turns of thread.
4. Draw the ends of the yarn up and work a few turns of thread around the base of the yarn to gather the ends together. Give the yarn a hard push at its base to angle the yarn back.
5. Use your hackle gauge to find a hackle of proper size for your hook. Strip the soft and overlong fibers from the base of the stem. Bind the hackle, by its bare stem, in front of the wing. Trim off the butt of the stem.
6. Dub a rough, full thorax to just short of the hook’s eye.
7. Spiral the hackle in four to six turns over the dubbed thorax to the eye. Build a tapered thread head, whip finish and cut the thread.
8. Draw back the wing yarn, and then snip it to a squared end to a bit longer than the length of the shank. Trim the shuck-yarn. Trim the hackle fibres off beneath the thorax, either to flat or to angle down in a shallow “V.” Add head cement.