Steampunk
Originally tied as a bit of a joke during a winter tying session with some friends. The idea being to get as many buoyant materials onto a hook as possible – it was dubbed the “FBS” by one of the guys, as it resembled a “f*****g big sedge”.
Later that year, I tied it on my leader to fish a long riffle on my local river Usk. I caught enough fish to get me interested and started to develop the pattern further.
I now tie it in several sizes and color variations, some with rubber legs. It’s buoyant, highly visible and very versatile. It can be used as an indicator fly, single dry fly or even as a pulled surface fly on lakes. Indeed it works very well on the Irish Lochs fished that way.
I’ve sent samples to friends in various parts of the World, it’s worked well wherever it’s been tried. And a very recent trip to Slovenia proved the Steampunk to be one of the top 2 producing flies for that week.
I had to do something about the name however, and asked a friend in New Zealand. He came back with the name Steampunk, he says it’s a dry fly with attitude that eats trout for breakfast. I liked that.
hook … standard dry fly hook 14-6
tail… TMC Aero wing
body… dubbed snow shoe hare
underwing… 4-8 CDC feather tips.
over wing.. bull elk
legs…rubber
hackle…. as many turns of saddle hackle as possible
head.. the butts of the elk hair, trimmed quite long.
Olive Steampunk
