STEWART'S SPIDER

Left fly - hen pheasant / Right fly-Indian rooster cape

STEWART'S SPIDER
Variation by Adam Rieger

Hook:  Size 12-14 standard shank
Thread: Your choice of color
Body:  Thread
Hackle: sparse hen pheasant or Indian rooster cape.

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(HISTORY
WC Stewart's "The Practical Angler" was published in 1857.  It was a landmark book for two major reasons.  The first is that in it, Stewart strongly advocated to fish upstream.  He was not the first to do that but the vast majority of fly fishing was done downstream and the vast majority of fly fishing books talked about techniques for fishing downstream.  His advocacy for upstream fishing was groundbreaking and met with debate, but Stewart was such an exceptional angler that the technique he advocated, in his own hands, left few with much to argue about once seeing him in action.  The second major reason this book was a landmark is because he classified the dressing of hooks (tying flies) into two categories - "spiders" and "flies".  This first grouping he called spiders were his all purpose all the time "fly".  More than anything, the spiders are more a technique to dress a hook rather than specific patterns.  He did prescribe 3 specific patterns only one of which, the black spider, is something one can tie today - the other two include feathers from birds that are not legal to sell.  (That said, nothing is stopping you from using any reasonable substitute for those feathers.)

Let's tie this bug!
Straight shanked hooks are my preference and I use standard length although you could use a short shanked hook.  The tying thread is not critical in terms of color...try a contrast or something that blends, the choice is yours.  Start the thread, one hook eye length, behind the eye and using a long tag wrap back to the midpoint of the shank.  Keeping the tag and not cutting it off, wrap past it - keeping that tag at the mid point - and take your thread back towards the bend until you are in line with the hook point.  Begin wrapping back towards the tag you left behind and when you reach it do one wrap in front and stop.  Select the type of feather you are going to use - hen pheasant, hen capes, partridge, starling, or rooster hackle.  The length of the barbs on the feather should be at least the hook gap in length...I like about 1.5...  Expose the tip of the feather using hackle pliers or your fingers and stroke the remaining fibers back.  Tie in the tip of the feather and move your working silk up to the initial tie in point.  Now take the feather and the tag and line the tag end of thread up with the stem of the feather.  Using your fingers or hackle pliers pinch both the stem and the tag and start to to spin the two gently to entwine the tag thread and the stem.  Don't spin too much or the feather stem will break.  Just a few and then take a wrap around the hook shank then maybe spin a few more and repeat.  Stroke the fibers back as you go and do consecutive wraps up the shank to the waiting thread in a tight spiral fashion.  Tie off the feather and tag with two tight turns and then cut off.  Make a small head and whip finish.  If you have trapped any hackle fibers during the wrapping you can pick them out with a bodkin.

Adam Rieger

No, not a pretty fly
The resulting fly should not be pretty.  That ugly - bed head hair/disheveled look is the goal.  This fly is simple, buggy and ideal in a fixed line system. 
Challenge yourself to try and tie this fly "old School" by hand with out a vise!

See this fly tied on Adam's YouTube channel here!

black, red and dun tied on Mustad sneck bend hooks size 13.