Fly Tying: The Fuzzy Merkin by Capt. Paul Fisicaro

STEP #1
Place a #1 mustad 34007 hook in your vice.
Starting by the eye, cover the hook with some flat waxed Orange thread

STEP #2
Tie in some Pearl Krystal flash

STEP #3
Tie in a clump of brown marabou at the end of the hook.
TYING TIP
Always coat the fly with Sally Hansen’s hard as nails after each step.

STEP #4
This is where it gets tricky. Turn you hook around in your vise. Figure eight one piece of brown sparkle yarn. Next, do the same with 1 strand of leg material.
TYING TIP
After figure eighting in yarn or leg material, always wrap 4 or 5 times right in front of the material. This locks in the yarn or leg material.

STEP #5
Now, Stay with me here. Place a piece of brown sparkle yarn right over the leg that you just tied in.
TYING TIP
After placing the yarn over the leg, you must now figure eight over the leg and the yarn. This ensures that the yarn is tied in directly above the leg.

STEP #6
Now, tie in 2 more pieces of yarn and a leg, then tie another piece of yarn over the second leg. Repeat this one more time.
TYING TIP
The steps go like this from the beginning. One piece of yarn then leg. One piece of yarn over leg then two pieces of yarn

STEP #7
This is how it should look after tying in all the materials. legs and yarn. Trim yarn in a trapezoid shape as shown in picture to the left.

STEP #8
Take a small wire brush and brush out the sparkle yarn until it looks like the picture on the left. At this stage I trim some more yarn to get the shape that I like.

STEP #9
Tie in large lead eyes and a mono V weed guard.
TYING TIP
I use 15 lb. Mason’s hard mono for the mono weed guard.