The H&L VARIANT TRUDE is an ATTRACTOR pattern, a great searching fly, and in a #12 as good a Western Green Drake pattern as I've ever fished. Learn to tie the original, and many other attractor patterns, and how to fish them, HERE

TYING the H&L VARIANT TRUDE Often referred to as Ike's Fly, for American President Dwight Eisenhower: it was his favorite because it was visible, is usually tied like a Wulff pattern with upright wings. This trude style is a durable, visible, easier to tie variation of a variant, a discussion for another time.

Hook: 1-2XL dry or nymph hook: this is a TMC 2312 #12 Wing & Tail: white poly material Hackle: furnce, brown, dun, grizzly, or mixed Body: half stripped peacock quill, half herl Rib: fine gold wire or tying thread

TIP: prepare several herl feathers by stripping the herl away from the stem of the feather at the base: feathers near the etye of avpeacock stick are best, but use what you have. Smaller flies need require length than larger flies.

I use my thumbnail and strip against the grain until the stem is mostly clear of herl. BUT, when a little remains the flt looks buggier, shich seems fine to me, because this is a pravtical fishing fly.

Flatten the barb. Start waxed thread about 1/3 of the shank length behind the eye, as shown; make BA wraps to just past the hook point, the tight FS wraps to about the position shown

Select a length of poly material, this is twice the length of the hook shank, but you can use longer in order to tie several flies; brush out

Separate fibers into 1/4 or 1/3, as above, and pull apart. Set aside thicker bunch

Wax thread; align fibers as shown, on top of the shank; tie in with 2 turns of thread; clip the eye side of bunch square, then hold thread in RH, and pull fibers back in LH until trimmed tips are over the thread

OR, as here, just pull up on the rear section while making BA wraps of waxed thread, to keep the tail on top of the hook shank. Continue until tail is in correct position, mounted at the end of the thread; trim excess poly at or slightly behind thread: see next

Tie in a length of fine wire on the near side of the shank with one wrap of thred; selecy peacock feather, at right, with stripped end ready to tie in. NOTE: tail has been trimmed to desired length

With the next turn of thread, tie in peacock on the far side of the shank, then make FA wraps of waxed thread to where thread started. Here, the thread is pulled forward into the bobbin cradle because I'm going to wind the herl using the rotary feature of my vise.

TIP: peacock is delicate. a too tight first turn of thread when tying it in may result in it breaking with the first wrap: thread can cut it. I thinkax help this not happen. When that does occur, unwind thread, retie herl and try again. You'll learm how much tension can be used on every material by tying more flies of the same types.

Wrap the herl forward to cover the thread and make the body of the fly. The stripped and herl taje up about equal hook shank realestate. Tie off with 4-5FA wraps of waxed thread, then, if you use a rotary vise, make 7-8 additional FA wraps of thread, above, Now, grasp the wire in RH and reverse wind the wire with evenly spaced tight FS wraps; with roraty feature this will unwrap the 7-8 additional thread wraps. Right. I make 2-3FA wraps of wire in front of herl, then 1-2 BA wraps of thread on wire before pulling the tip back and making 2-3BA wraps over all of the wire. Clip away excess wire.

TIP: always cut wire on lower section of scissors' blades to keep tips sharp for cutting feathers and sdoft materials.

Wax thread, make FA wraps to cover bare shank to a distance about 1-1/2 the length of the eye behind the eye, as shown above, align remaining hank of poly as shown, and tie in with tight, close BS wraps of waxed thread.

I use a small pet comb to brush out fibers and separate them, as shown here. A dubbing needle or scissors' points also serve.

Pull forward length of wing back either over or adjacent to back section and tie down where thread hangs (adjacent to finished body) with 2 tight FA wraps of waxed thread. When making these 2 wraps of thread, pull up on wing tips to orient wing on top of the shank, then cover wing butts with FA wraps of thread; stop thread adjacent to back of eye.

Select hackle; this is furnace that's sized one size smaller than the hook: on a #10 hook, I use a size 12 hackle, or even slightly smaller so the fly, a trude, sits low on the water. Prepare hackle, tie in where thread hands with 3-4BA wraps of waxed thread. Move thread to back of hook eye.

Wrap hackle back with near SR to wing, the forward with near SR to thread. Tie off with 1 wrap on the feather, 1 wrap in front of the feather, then repeat. Clip stem close without cutting thread. NOTE: the hackle is on top of the shank, the thread under the shank

Wax thread, and whip finish with 5-6 BA wraps to create thread head, clip thread; now, tie more.

OPTIONS: are numerous regarding trude patterns. Tail: none; rooster spade hackle, including red; antron/z-lon; elk or moose hair. Body: make the entire body with herl; slightly more complex is making it royal - peacock herl, red floss/thread, peacock herl; or dubbing with or without a contrasting rib; body hackle palmered through dubbing. Wing: hair: elk, deer, calf; duck flank slips; turkey flat fibers I mentioned hackle earlier. Learn more about ATTRACTOR patterns, fishing and tying.

H&L Variant: Ike's Fly