Step #1: Place a 35mm articulated shank from Flymen Fishing Company in your vise. Attach black Uni thread and close off the loop with several thread wraps. Take a 4 inch piece of Fire Line fold it in half. Thread the loop through the hook eye, and open the fire line loop and pull it over the hook bend to form your connection. Attach the Fire Line to the shank with several thread wraps, and apply a drop of super glue. Your hook eye should be roughly 1.5 inch away from the shank loop when finished.
Step #2: Make a small ball out of Pink Laser Dubbing at the rear of the shank. Place 2 Golden Pheasant Crest over the top of the dubbing ball, and make them form the letter "V" as you look toward the rear of the shank. Next add a section of Golden Pheasant Tippet to each side of the dubbing ball and secure with several thread wraps.
Step #3: Strip one side of a purple hen hackle feather and secure tip first. Dub the body of the shank with Steely Blue Ice Dubbing, and palmer the hackle forward as you would a woolly bugger.
Step #4: Tie in and spread out 10 strands of Pearl Crystal Flash. The crystal flash should finish at about 1.5 inches long. Over top of the flash, tie in a small clump of blue arctic fox tail of equal length and secure.
Step #5: Tie in a 3 inch section of Magenta T's Fur and 4-6 strands of Purple Mirage Flashabou.
Step #6: Strip down one side of a Kingfisher Blue Schlappen Feather and palmer a collar with 3 or 4 wraps around the shank.
Step #7: Brush out and tie in a 4 inch long section of Royal Blue T's Fur, with 4 strands of Opal/Ice Blue Mirage over the top.
Final: To finish off the streamer add two strands of black ostrich over the wing, and a set of Golden Pheasant tippets to each side of the wing to form the "Lion Eyes". Tie off the thread and apply cement to the head.
I hear it all the time, that there seems to always be these super complicated and unnecessary fly tying process to build upright or "Temple Dog" style fly patterns. Though the steps I show you with this pattern are not how it was done originally or traditionally, the wing does not collapse and retains the same swimming action as the more complicated original designs. I hope you find this to be useful and it reopens the interest many of you asked for when requesting this tutorial.
All fly tying materials used, unless stated are offered at almost every fly shop in the country, and manufactured by Hareline Dubbin Inc.
