[dropcap]D[/dropcap]rew Chicone, one of the world’s most celebrated, prolific and innovative fly tyers, with a singular skill of teaching, has agreed to regular monthly contributions of recipes and instructions.
His most highly productive flies or those tied by his A-List tyers (flies that do catch fish) should get you into the fly shop to buy materials – not pre-tied flies at $6 a pop.
The easiest salute to Drew’s achievements is his ability to teach what seems too difficult for the untalented tiers among us to tackle, and make it a doable and an enjoyable task. Doable translates to encouraging and that leads to confidence.
In the following recipe and instructions I found the latter to be so. I can now tie the Pine Island Ice Tea fly in minutes, perfectly. It’s easy.
Here is the recipe and tying instructions for tying the Pine Island Ice Tea fly by Capt. Daniel Andrews
MATERIALS:
Hook: Daiichi 2546 or Mustad S71SZ size 2
Thread for body: 210 Danville Flat waxed Nylon – Chartreuse
Eyes: Pseudo Eyes 5/32 or 3 mm – Silver & Chartreuse
Body: Crystal chenille or Estaz – Root-beer
Tail: Bucktail – Brown Krystal Flash – Chartreuse
Weed-guard: 20lb Monofilament – Clear
Adhesive: Clear Cure Goo Hydro
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Start the thread at the eye of the hook and lay down a layer of thread until you reach
the point of the hook. Tie in a 3 inch piece of monofilament on top of the hook shank.
Cover the monofilament with a layer of thread until you reach the middle of the bend.
Wrap back to the point of the hook.
2. Cut a pencil-size hank of Bucktail measuring slightly longer than the shank of the
hook, and remove any loose hair or under fur. Tie in the bundle at the point of the
hook.
3. Directly in front of the bucktail, secure the dumbbell eyes with a series of figure eight
wraps. Make a few wraps around the base of the eyes, passing the thread underneath
the dumbbell eyes, but over the top of the hook shank. This really helps to keep the
eyes from spinning around the hook. Add 4 strands of Krystal Flash to both sides of
the fly. Trim the flash slightly longer than the tips of the bucktail.
4. On top of the the bucktail, tie in a 6 inch piece of Crystal Chenille with several tight
wraps and advance the tread to about an 1/8 of an inch behind the eye of the hook.
5. Wind the Crystal Chenille forward with snug wraps being careful not to trap too many
fibers. Make a figure eight wrap around the eyes to cover the thread wraps
with Crystal Chenille, and continue palmering forward until you reach the thread.
Secure the Crystal Chenille and leave the excess intact, do not cut it away!
6. Pull the monofilament down, leaving roughly a 1/4 inch gap between the bottom of the
hook and the monofilament weed-guard. Tie the monofilament in place and cover it
with 2 turns of Crystal Chenille.
7. Once you have secured the monofilament and Crystal Chenille with several tight
wraps, cut away the excess. Pull back the fibers and build a thread head behind the
eye of the hook. Whip-finish, cut away the thread and apply a thin coat of head
cement or Clear Cure Goo Hydro to complete the fly.
Viola! The Pine Island Ice Tea. A redfish warrior . . . and what else?
Check out everything else that Drew is up to by going to his blog and website. There is a wealth of information and he is happy to share his vast knowledge. So check it out.
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