beadhead bloodworm fly tie

Bloodworm are found close to the bottom so that is where the Bloodworm fly should be fished, daft though it might seem, it took me a long time to put that into practice!! If you are using a floating line or sink tip the best way of getting a fly close to the bottom is to use a metal beadhead in the tying of the fly. This Bloodworm pattern has caught me many fish, particularly in the Spring and early Summer when the Bloodworm is high on the fishes menu. Tied using a copper beadhead because to my mind it blends better with the red marabou and the strikingly bright red of the Glo-Brite number 4 floss that the fish find irresistible in this pattern. My thoughts are that this glaring red colour piques the curiosity of the fish and with its seductively fluttering marabou tail, makes a fly which is easy to tie but at the same time a real fish catcher. Tie half a dozen and see for yourself. Some of these metal beads are notoriously difficult to thread onto a hook, fortunately the copper beads that I had and the Tiemco 2457 or Kamasan B110 hooks that I used fitted the hooks with just touch of brute force. Other times I have gripped the beads in a vice with a bit of padding and opened the holes up with a drill till they fitted over the barb of the hook. The Glo-Brite #4 floss is thin enough that if you control it by spinning in a clockwise direction it will tighten up sufficiently to be able to tie the fly just using the floss. When you come to pad up the body of the fly, spin the floss in an anti clockwise direction so that it will spread and make a smooth body. The first job is to fix the bead into place. Put some varnish behind the bead so that floss grips the hook and hardens off behind the bead. I tend to use varnish between layers on this fly and others that I tie, so that the materials bond together to make a fly that will catch more than one or two fish. When the marabou is tied in it looks and feels like a bit of a mess. But when the marabou is securely held, spin the floss in an anti clockwise direction so that it spreads wide as you wrap it. The untidy ends of the marabou are soon fastened down and the spread of the floss will enable you to make a smooth body that will look great when varnished or epoxied over. It will take two or three coats of “Hard as Nails” or “Hard as Hull” to give that lustrous tooth proof finish and I generally use a rotary drier such as the very affordable Stonefly drier between coats so that the coatings are even distributed as they dry. Recipe! Thread and body. Glo-Brite #4 red floss. Rib. A single strand of Pearl Flashabou. Bead head. 3mm Copper bead. Hook. Tiemco TMC2457 or Kamasan B110, size 12. Varnish. Sally Hansen “Hard as Nails” or “Hard as Hull” head cement. Two or three coats.