As your fishing experience grows you will find, as others have, that conditions vary on different bodies of water. Each lake or stream has its own peculiarities. With a hatch visible on one lake a particular pattern of fly will be sure to produce any number of fish or strikes. But upon another lake no more than half a mile away there may be no sign of an insect hatch and the fly of the pattern mentioned will be useless. I have also found that hatches of the insect commonly known as the Pink Lady produce different reactions on the part of fish in different lakes. When such a hatch is on the water the fish in a great many lakes will avidly take an artificial fly, tied to imitate the insect, having an upright, divided primary wing. But in at least three lakes with which I am familiar the only pattern that the fish will take is one tied with semi-spent hackle tip wings. The semi-spent wing pattern of the Pink Lady fly has produced fish in far-separated areas of fishing. And I can remember a number of occasions when, without this pattern, the day would have produced no results, even though I had presented twenty-five or thirty other flies of every size and color.

In this lesson I will explain how to tie the Pink Lady with semi-spent wings. Perhaps there will be times when the use of a fly with this type of wing will help to provide you a satisfying day of fishing. When using this type of fly I prefer to stay pretty close in size to the hatch that is active; so for this lesson tie the fly on a No. 12 hook. When you have completed this fly you will see that it is a good "bug" and you will want other flies on this size of hook.

If you have a dry fly hook in the No. 12 size, it would be better to use it. Place the hook in vise. Use your No. 0000, or 4/0, black tying silk for this fly. Attach silk, wind it to the bend of hook and half-hitch.

Take 8 or 10 good stiff fibres of light brown or dark ginger hackle. Fibres from a neck hackle feather are best. Tie these on at the bend of the hook for the tail of the fly. The length of the tail is the same as the length of the shank of hook. Finish the tie with a half-hitch.

Cut 6 or 8 inches of the double-strand pink floss from the spool of floss, and about 6 inches of narrow gold tinsel from your spool of tinsel. Tie both the floss and tinsel on at the bend of the hook, just in front of the tail. Attach them with 5 or 6 turns of the tying silk and a half-hitch. After this is done spiral the tying silk up to a point 1/4 inch from the eye of the hook and attach it there with a half-hitch.

Wrap the double strand of pink floss back close to the tail, making 1 or 2 turns around hook, covering all the black tying silk wound on there. Then spiral the pink floss up along shank of hook, very evenly, to the point where the tying silk is attached. Bring floss forward a little, cross over with the tying silk, make 3 or 4 turns with the silk and then a half-hitch. Cut off the remainder of the floss.

Wrap the gold tinsel in spirals over the body. Make 4 complete turns around the body between the bend of hook and the point where tying silk is attached. Make 4 turns, evenly spaced, no more, no less. Bring the tinsel forward a little, cross over with the tying silk, make 3 or 4 turns and a half-hitch. Cut off the remainder of the tinsel.

Select, from a neck or cape, 2 brown or ginger hackle feathers, about l½ inches in length. Take one of the feathers from the left side of the neck and the other from the right side of the neck. These feathers have a slight, but definite, curve which helps a lot in giving a more life-like appearance to the wings of the fly when tied.

After selecting the hackle feathers place them together, one on top of the other, with the concaved, the cupped or dull, sides of the two feathers down. Holding the two hackle feathers in your right hand place them on top of the body of the fly, lying flat with the concave, or dull, sides down and the tips extending out over the bend of the hook. Measure the hackle feathers to obtain the proper length of the wings. The tips of the wings should extend out not quite as far as the end of the tail of the fly.

After checking the wings for length grasp the two hackle feathers between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand and hold them firmly in position at the front of the body of the fly, with the concave, or dull, sides down, lying flat over the body of the fly. Take the tying silk in the fingers of your right hand and make 4 or 5 wraps around the quills of the hackle feathers and the shank of the hook, tying the hackle feathers in at the front of the body of the fly. With 4 or 5 wraps and a half-hitch the wings will be firmly attached at this point. When this has been done the wings will be lying flat on top of the fly and you wish to keep them this way. Now, take hold of the two wings, near their ends, and separate them so that they will be V-shaped as you look down at the top of the fly. Do not spread them too far. I suggest that the separation at the tips of the wings should be not more than ½ inch; the wings are to be in semi-spent position and this amount of spread gives the most realistic appearance.

With the wings spread in V-shape take the tying silk and again make 4 or 5 wraps of the silk in the same spot where you made the wraps attaching the wings to the hook. Make these wraps tightly and finish with a half hitch. Cut off the excess portion of the hackle feathers, snipping them off in front of the wraps of tying silk.

Select a good, dry brown or dark ginger neck hackle for the hackle of this fly. Strip off the fibres at the base and then trim off all but about ¼ inch of the stripped quill. Place the hackle feather on the hook with the concave, or cupped, side facing you and tie it on in front of the wings with 4 or 5 wraps of the tying silk and a half-hitch. Grasp the tip of the hackle feather with the hackle pliers and wrap it around the hook in front of the wings, making each wrap on top of the one previously made. The concave, or dull, side of the feather faces the front of the fly as the hackle is wrapped on. Make a total of 5 turns of the hackle around the hook, cross over the tip of the hackle feather with the tying silk, wrap 3 or 4 turns over the quill and finish with a half-hitch. Snip off the tip of the hackle feather. Taper the head of the fly, ending the wraps with a half-hitch. Then put on the whip finish, and lacquer the head.

The semi-spent type of wing may be placed on many different patterns of flies instead of the upright, or other type of wing usually put on the fly. You will find it advisable, I think, to have five or six flies with this type of wing in your fly box. I would keep such flies with wings of various colors: ginger brown, barred, black. Such an assortment would take care of any hatch which you might encounter. It is not suggested, of course, that the Pink Lady be tied with barred, black or other colors of wings different than specified in the pattern; but other patterns of flies having wings in these colors may be tied with semi-spent wings to round out your assortment.

PINK LADY, SEMI-SPENT (Dry)

Hook:               No. 12
Tail:                  Light brown or ginger hackle; 6 - 8 fibres
Body:               Pink floss
Ribbing:            Gold tinsel, narrow
Wings:              Light brown or ginger hackles, small;
                        flat on top in V-shape
Hackle:             Light brown or ginger, tied dry

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