whem it comes to winter grayling fishing jig flies and bugs are most popular amongst UK fly anglers. In the colder months grayling will oftern shoal together on them really cold days. these weighted flies allow you  to get down to them grayling fast!  the most productive method to fish these flies is using a French and Czech leaders with indicators. see below how I tie the pink quill jig.

I use the following materials to make this fly

Hook – Fulling Mill  Jig Hook size 16 

Thread –  Semperfli  12/0 waxed thread Pink

Tail – Coq De Leon

bead – 3,0 get slotted light pink slotted bead

Body – Pink Polish Quill

Thorax – Hares ear natural mixed with black rabbit fur

STEP 1  

Attach bead onto your hook and pop in the vice, start your thread off at the bead and secure it so it doesn’t move.

 

Step 2 

bring your thread down towards the bend of the hook and tie in the Coq De Leon fibres for the tail. your looking for the tail fibres to lay flat and not start going around the bend of the hook.

 

Step 3 

take a quill and tie it in, you should tie the thinner bit of the quill in and as your looking at it the black line should be on the bottom of the quill, I also like to use the thread to make a nice taper for the quill to lay on,  this means when you wind it up you’ll achieve a segmented effect.

 

Step 4 

carefully wind up the quill making touching turns and leaving no gaps all the way up to the bead. at this point some people add a dab of UV resin for protection the is optional, what ill sometimes do is before winding the body just pop a little bit of varnish or superglue on the thread then wind up.

 

Step 5 

For the thorax I make a mix of hares ear and dyed rabbit in black, the result is a nice and spikey dubbing! perfect for use on all manner of river flies!

 

Step 6

build up the thorax, I like to draw the fibres back with my index finger and thumb with each turn to help make the fly look nice and buggy.

step 8 

almost done! all that’s left to do is create a little hot spot using the thread and then whip finish, add a bit of varnish to secure the thread.

 

I hope you all enjoyed this step by step, in my next blog ill be going through my typical set up I use when I’m nymphing on the river so keep an eye out for that!

 

tight line