First new fly of 2014

Ok, so I know we are almost a week in to the New Year but I've been in a rut for a couple of weeks. I have struggled to get my head down and knuckle on with tying flies, not that I don't have enough already but you know how it is. Every time I've sat down to tie, and believe me that's been hard enough most of the time, I struggle to tie more than one or two flies before getting extremely fed up of my efforts. It's been that bad, honest.

So last night whilst trying to get to sleep I had a thought in my head about a fly to tie and here it is.

I have used some new hooks, these are Daiichi 1190 dry fly hooks. These are standard length hooks but I find them too long, compared to what I'm used to; in fact they are exactly the same as the Partridge barbless ideal nymph hooks, except they are a finer wire. Perfect in my mind for light nymphs and emergers with an added bonus that they go down to a size 24. You can find them here at Funky Fly Tying.

I have tied this emerger on a size 16 the hook, the shank being kinked a little where the thorax starts. A small amount of filoplume starts the fly off, this will represent the beginning of the shuck starting to separate. The body is stripped peacock quill that is dyed olive; I have used Nature's Spirit dyed peacock eyes available here.

A small amount of bunched mallard flank fibres for the wing, I have split this with the thread that forms the paraloop post.

The hackle is Whiting grizzly dyed olive. I have used a midge hackle from a quarter cape I bought from North Country Angler aka Matt Eastham, brilliant little bit of saddle, thank you Matt. The thorax is SLF masterclass colour 01 baetis dark olive.