This month’s guest fly tier is Liam Fish, Liam will be demonstrating the Klinkhamer Special. The fly originally came from Dutch fly tier Hans Van Klinken. It represents an emerging caddis but has been adapted to imitate emerging insects in various colours and sizes. This fly is highly visible and works in all our rivers and in bigger, darker brown versions works fantastically on lakes.  So come to the Club on 11 Apr and learn from Liam how to tie this great pattern.

Klinkhamer Special as tied by Hans Van Kliken

 Hook- Original used the Partridge GRS15ST, which is not always easy to find. Either Kamasan B100, Daiichi 1150 or my personal preference: Black Magic “F”. Any grub or buzzer hook is fine in sizes #12 – 18.

Thread: Black 6/0 or 8/0 Uni-Thread (depends on size)

Hackle: Brown or Ginger

Post: White Poly Yarn

Thorax: Peacock Herl, use 2 herls for smaller sizes-3 for larger.

Abdomen: Original used a “Poly 2” dubbing.  Really any fine natural or synthetic dubbing works well, as far as natural goes I’d use a fine Squirrel or Muskrat and for a synthetic it’s hard to go past Antron as it is easy to work with, looks great and is relatively cheap and easy to come by.

Variants: Quite a few variations exist with many combinations or inclusions of the following: Crystal Flash tail/shuck, CDC or Possum Post, Hi-Vis or Neer-hair post in bright colours, Pheasant Tail abdomen and tail (a great Dun pattern) The list could go on!

One of my favourites is a black or olive thread abdomen tied very slim with a Crystal Flash rib and Grizzle hackle in a sizes 16-18 for midge feeders. For most situations a couple in olive or brown in a few sizes will be sufficient.