St. Vrain Angler Presents:

Tying The

Hare's Ear Nymph

The Hare's Ear, often referred to as the Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear, can be tied in a multitude of colors, styles, shapes and sizes. The basic pattern shown here is easy to tie, which means you can fill a box with hare's ear nymphs in relatively short order.

A Hare's Ear Soft hackle works very well as a caddis or mayfly emerger. See the bottom of this page for soft hackle details.

For added weight, tie hare's ears with a bead and/or with lead on the body. Enjoy tying and fishing Hare's Ear Nymphs. Here we go.

Materials:

1. Standard nymph hooks are best. Use what you have, but use heavy wire.

2. Thread color to match the body, more or less. We like flat thread such as Danville 6/0 or UTC 70.

3. Tails can be made of fibers from feathers, including pheasant tail, partridge, hen backs, any other hen material and so on. Use what you have. Use dark fibers for darker flies; light fibers for lighter flies. Be creative!

4. Abdomen and thorax can be dubbed from the same or different colors of material. Hare's mask, rabbit dyed to the color of choice, Sow Scud dubbing, other course synthetic dubbings and a variety of other materials can be used. The larger the fly, the more course the material ought be. Plan to learn and use a dubbing loop to build thick, bulky flies.

5. Rib may be any type of wire you like, including brass, gold, silver, oval or flat mylar or krystal flash.

6. Wing case: goose or turkey quill, pheasant tail fibers, flashabou fibers, flat mylar in gold, silver or pearl, or thin skin.

7. Legs, if desired - not shown in our sample - may be made from pheasant tail or partridge fibers, or by picking out excess dubbing.

Tying Instructions

1. Remove the barb; mount hook in the vise; start the thread at the 1/2 point on the hook shank; wind thread back so thread hangs over the shank of the hook immediately over where the barb was; this is the back of the shank, just in front of the bend.

2. Select a clump of tailing fibers that are equal in diameter to the diameter of the hook shank. Be sure tips are even, and tie in with two wraps of thread. The tail should be on top of the hook shank.

3. Trim a length of wire and tie in with several wraps of thread.

4. Dub dubbing - isn't English a funny language? You can verb words - onto the thread. Use a bit of wax on the thread and your fingers, and dub small amounts of material over large amounts of thread. When tying very large hare's ear nymphs - say bigger than a #12 or so - consider using a dubbing loop.

5. Wind dubbing forward, making the abdomen taper from where the tail is attached to the hook to where the thread was originally started at the middle of the hook shank. Wind the dubbing two more wraps in front of that spot, and dam up the dubbed abdomen with several wraps of thread to hold in place.

6. Reverse wrap the rib forward evenly to form segments. Continue ribbing until wire is in front of the abdomen, then make two or three more wraps to secure the wire before tying off and trimming excess wire.

7. Wind thread back onto abdomen. Select wing case material and cut to width. Usually the gap of the hook will be about the proper width unless the fly is significantly fuller or thinner. Tie material in where thread is hanging so there will be a smooth transition from the abdomen to the thorax.

8. Dub more dubbing onto the thread and wind forward to fill in thorax. Consider using peacock for this on occasion; it is lovely and buggy! Make the thorax as full as desired/required and dam off with thread where the head begins!

9. Add legs, if desired.

10. Pull wing case over the top of the abdomen, tie off, create head with thread and whip finish.

Hare's Ear Soft Hackle

Tie in tail, abdomen and rib in a similar manner, making the abdomen most of the length of the hook shank.

Select a hen or partridge feather to create the soft hackle, and prepare the feather by pulling the fibers back and clipping out the tip of the feather. Tie in by the tip in the head area and wind forward to make hackle as full or sparse as required.

Tie feather off, clip excess, make head with thread and whip finish.

Typically, the hackle should flow back extending anywhere from the middle of the abdomen to the back of the tail. Again, this is a preference that will develop as the fly is fished.

Enjoy!

Hint: when tying several sizes of flies, always begin with the smallest sizes and progress to the larger sizes. The proportions of all the flies will be better than doing the opposite.

If you have any questions, please drop me a line at angler@peakpeak.com, give us a call at 303-651-6061. We love teaching fly tying and will do our best to answer any fly tying question you might have.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy fly tying.