Ian’s Brass Ass

Here are instructions to tie Ian’s Brass Ass – To learn more about Ian James please check out his website.

Dressing:

  • Hook: Grub or wet-fly
    Sizes: #8 to #16
  • Thread: Black
  • Body: Copper wire
  • Thorax: Black thread
  • Cheeks: Hedron 3-D orange coloured holographic tinsel, (code: 4067) or a strip of orange garbage bag.
  • Coating: 5-minute epoxy

Tying Steps:

  1. Tie the thread onto the hook shank well down the bend of the hook.
  2. Trim away the excess thread.
  3. Tie in a section of copper wire.
  4. Trim the excess copper wire.
  5. Wrap the thread 3/4 of the way along the hook shank.
  6. In touching turns wrap the copper wire 3/4 of the way along the hook shank.
  7. Tie off the copper wire
  8. Trim away the excess copper wire.
  9. Tie a strip of the holographic fiber onto each side of the hook shank.
  10. Build up a small thorax with the black thread.
  11. Pull the first strip of the holographic fiber along one side of the thorax and tie it down.
  12. Trim the away excess holographic fiber.
  13. Pull the second strip of the holographic fiber along the other side of the thorax and tie it down.
  14. Trim the away excess holographic fiber.
  15. Whip finish and trim away the thread.
  16. Coat the fly in 5-minute epoxy.

Epoxy Tips:

Epoxy is dangerous to work with, so make sure you wear latex gloves when applying it to the fly. You should also open a window to get a bit of ventilation going when you are working with epoxy.