Double Down muskie fly – Ben Treppa

Let me just say that Ben has been great to me and FrankenFly. You might have seen his previous fly I posted here that he amazingly named FrankenShrimp. How could you not love that name? Then I contact Ben a few days ago and ask if he had anything else in his bag of flies and he did! He told me he has been working on this muskie fly and sent me a photo. I thought it was awesome! So Ben sat down and put a lot of work into this step-by-step to show everyone how to tie this beautiful beast. Keep in mind this is a big fly and there are a lot of steps. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks Ben!

Double Down Musky Fly

Materials
Rear Hook- Mustad 7825-NI 4/0
Front Hook- Gamakatsu SL12S 6/0
Thread- G.S.P, Red
Black Bucktail
Orange Bucktail
Fluorescent Orange Marabou
White Marabou
Gold Magnum Flashabou
Fluorescent Orange Rooster Saddle
Grizzly Saddle
Black Arctic Fox
Wire/Hard Mono/Fluoro (for connection)
Beads
Zap-a-Gap, or any other super glue
Deer Creek Gator Eyez
Deer Creek Diamond Hard Tack Free

: Mount hook in vise. To do this, I simply mount one of hooks into the vise then turn the vise until the shank of the hook is parallel with my tying bench.

: Cover hook shank well with tight thread wraps. To help with durability the thread wraps can be coated with head cement or super glue.

: Cut a clump of black bucktail (half a pencil thick) and pull out the underfuzz and short hairs. Tie on top of shank below the hook point. Tie in tight, and pull up on buck tail to flare a bit.

: Rotate hook in vise. Tie in another clump of bucktail and flare just like you did on the previous step.

: Cut several pieces of gold flashbou off the hank (more the merrier). Tie in at the halfway point of the flashabou.

: Double the flashabou over and tie down firmly.

: Pull a piece of strung marabou with long barbules. Tie in via the tip and palmer in directly in front of the bucktail. While palmering, stroke barbules back so they don’t get caught up.

: Tie in another small clump of black bucktail, however, this time tie it in reverse style (butt end first).

: Rotate vise and tie in another small clump of bucktail reverse style.

: Reverse bucktail. There are numerous ways of doing this. Some people use a pen body or other tool; I personally use a washer for musky flys because the hooks are so large. Create a thread dam in front of bucktail until the flare how you would like it. Vary the “flare” in flies you tie. Large flare pushes less water but has a bigger profile. A tighter, smaller flare pushes a lot of water.

: Select 3 long saddle hackles for each side of the hook (6 total). Tie them in so they rest on top of the bucktail. I leave quite a bit of the soft barbules at the base of the feather for some extra body.

: Select a wide webby feather from your saddle. Tie onto fly tip first.

: Palmer hackle forward. Tie off, whip finish, and coat with Deer Creek Diamond Hard Tack free UV resin. Remove from vise and set aside. **There are two number “21s”. Do not necessarily need to show the pic of the UV bottle.

: Cut piece of mono/wire/ or whatever you like long enough to tie on rear hook. I leave about 1” sticking out in front of the eye for later steps. Thread on beads. **NOTE** for this example I used 60lb mono. I prefer wire for musky but I was out. Picture 25: Fold over tag ends and tie them down. This adds some extra strength.

: Fold over tag ends and tie them down. This adds some extra strength.

: Once mono/wire is tied down good apply a good coating of super glue. I prefer zap a gap.

: Cut a clump of orange bucktail (half a pencil thick) and pull out the underfuzz and short hairs. Tie on top of shank towards the bend. Tie in tight, and pull up on buck tail to flare a bit. Rotate hook and the underside.

: Select a good full piece of orange marabou and tie on in front of bucktail.

: Rotate vise and tie white marbou plume in front the bucktail.

: Tie 3 more long saddle hackles on each side of the hook shank.

: Cut another bunch of gold flashabou, tie down in the middle, and reverse of the hook like we did on the rear hook section. Cut a clump of orange bucktail (pencil thickness), remove under fur/short pieces, and tie in reverse style.

: Reverse orange bucktail and create thread dam to desired flare.

: Tie in 3-6 more long orange saddle hackles on top of the flared orange bucktail.

: Cut a clump of black bucktail (pencil thickness), remove under fur/short pieces, and tie in reverse style.

: Reverse black bucktail and create thread dam to desired flare.

: Prepare dubbing loop. Wax one side of loop. Cut a good clump of arctic fox fur off the hide and lay out. Trim butts even and place in dubbing loop. Spin dubbing tool until you have achieved a tight brush.