Rusty Spinner               

Hook:  Tiemco TMC 100 # 12 or Daiichi 1130

Thread: Rusty Brown 8/0 Uni Thread

Tail:    Light coloured Microfibbetts

Rib: Gold or Copper Wire

Body: Rusty Dubbing artificial not a natural material

Hackle: Light Brown/Ginger Cock

1/ First off wrap a nice even base of thread starting from near the front of the hook and extending to the point where you are going to tie in your first part of the fly, the tail. This point should be roughly level with the barb on the hook. Once this is completed and you have a good bed of thread proceed to step two.
2/ Select a small bunch of Microfibbetts (between 2 and 5 is plenty) equal in length to 1.5 or 2 times the hook shank. Tie in as shown to form a tail and remove the excess tail filament stubs. Microfibbetts are great for this as they are stiff right through unlike filaments from a hackle. Also they can be splayed or bent into shape after tying. Go to next step.
3/  Next take a piece of copper wire and secure it to the hook at the rear of the fly. This wire should be tied in so that it protrudes out from the rear of the fly and is out of the way of your working space for constructing the rest of the fly. Once this is done trim the excess wire and cover with a few well placed turns of thread.
4/ Next up pinch a tiny amount of dubbing from the packet. Form a ever so slightly tapered rope starting thin and gradually getting thicker. It may take several goes to get the right amount but once you are familiar with the particular hook size you are tying the fly in you should be able to grab the correct amount pretty much first time, every time. Remember to use a minimal amount of dubbing as this fly is very delicate.
5/ Next wind your dubbed rope forward towards the thread. Make each successive turn in front of the previous one but make sure you create a slightly tapering body. With this pattern you don't want a very prominent taper as the natural is almost the same size from the rear of the abdomen to the front of the thorax. Be sure to mimic this only slight taper.
6/ Now that you have made the thin body of the fly take the copper wire rib and start to wind forward. Use between 4 and 7 even wraps to reach the point where the thread is. This rib will hardly be noticeable. When this is done secure it with the thread and remove any excess you may have. Then move onto step 7.
7/ We are nearly finished. Select a good quality hackle feather from your cape/saddle. A light Ginger/Brown is ideal. I have used a normal Brown Cock feather here. Tie it angled backwards and with the shiny side towards you. This will assist in getting the hackle to stand up correctly right from the very first turn. Once this is tied in trim the excess feather stem and wind the thread forward to the eye of the hook.
8/ Take your hackle feather and wind forward with each successive turn in front of the previous one. In this case you may even want to use only several turns like I do as these spinners are extremely delicate. Tie different versions with some using only a couple of turns of hackle for fishing in slower water and some with a few more for faster water. Tie off and trim the excess hackle feather. Add two half hitches.
9/ The fly is completed as far as the tying goes. Have a look at it from above you will notice the body is almost evenly tapered with just a slight increase in size from rear to front. Also notice the lightly tied and bright hackle, perfect for highlighting the rusty colour of this insect. Lastly use your fingers to bend the Microfibbett tails into place which not only makes it look like the natural but helps to balance it on the water.

The Pattern

The Rusty Spinner is a tie to imitate what is known widely as the Orange Spinner. We have two patterns for representing this insect and this is the first we will feature as Fly of the week. These spinners are Orange all right....only when viewed in flight in direct sunlight and flying in front of your face. Get them into your hand and you will notice they are rusty (not orange) on the top with a cream-pale lemon underbody. The second version of this fly we use is what we call a Lemon Spinner and is also extremely effective when the Mayfly are doing their mating dance just above the water. We will feature this at a later date.

This fly sits high on the water with the long, strong microfibbet tails and hackle holding it above the surface. The reason for making your spinner patterns sit high in this fashion is so that you can somehow simulate the natural hovering just above the water. Takes are often violent as the fish attempts to catch the insect before it flies away. Trout on these insects are prone to moving over a wide area chasing them on the wing as opposed to say when duns are drifting down a bubble line and they don't have to move at all to intercept them. For this reason you are more likely to encounter smaller specimens on local rivers taking this bug. It's a different story on the lakes of Tasmania or streams of the Monaro! Here the spinner hatches are heralded for bringing big fish to the top and although a different colour is used in these locations the pattern is exactly the same.

Find a fishing slashing them form the top and fish from down stream and slightly across. Great on still warm evenings in mid-late Spring and throughout Summer.

And also before we finish up the reason we recommend using an artificial dubbing is because most natural fibres change colour when they absorb water. Many to such a point that there is little or no resemblance to the original colour when dry. Going to great lengths to get a lovely matching light colour for the body only to have it darken up is frustrating to say the least. Use you Antrons and similar variants to guarantee the fish will see what you want them to see.

Good fishing!

Antony, David and Geoff.