Mr. Rapidan Skater
This is a step-by-step instruction on how to tie the Mr. Rapidan Skater by Scott Patternson. There is an entire series of Mr. Rapidan flies and it all started at Murray’s Fly Shop in Edinburg, Virginia. If you want to read more about the Mr. Rapidan series, head over to Murray’s Fly Shop website to read the whole story. To know how to tie the Skater, continue to follow Scott’s step by step.
hook – TMC 5212 #6
thread – MFC 8/0 brown
rib – x-small wire gold
tail – calftail dark brown
abdomen – Fly Rite Poly quill gordon/brown drake yellow
body hackle – grizzly (undersize by 2)
wing – calftail yellow
front hackle – brown/grizzly mixed
mash barb, start thread at 2/3 mark, tie in rib, wrap back to point above barb
clean, stack, measure (gap width past bend) a clump of calftail (if you don’t have a dark brown one, just use the stuff at the base of any calftail); tie in/trim butts
tie in undersized hackle at 2/3 mark
return hackle to tail tie-in; dub thread, dub body
wrap hackle back to tail; capture tip with wire, then spiral through hackle to front of body, helicopter end and tie off
clean, stack, measure (tips to bend) a clump of yellow calftail; tie in, trim butts
flatten/divide wing; set with crossing wraps
tie in hackle
wrap, tie off, trim, half hitch x 2, SHHAN
done
