How to Tie a Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear

Learn how to tie a Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly tying skills here.

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The Hare's Ear is one of the most popular nymph patterns in contemporary trout fishing. Many variations exist but this particular pattern, including rubber legs, is sure to fool any trout keyed in on stonefly nymphs. This nymph also works well as an attractor pattern, point fly, and single fly under and indicator. We've tied this fly with plenty of weight to sink quickly into a trout's feeding zone to help you catch more fish. Learn the steps necessary to tie the Hare's Ear in this fly tying tutorial.

Materials:

• Daiichi 1560 Traditional Nymph Hook - Size 10
• Hareline Plummeting Tungsten Bead - 7/64", Black Nickel
• Hareline Natural Hare's Mask - Natural
• Hareline Spooled Lead Wire
• UTC Brassie Ultra Wire - Gold
• Hareline Coq De Leon - Black
• Hareline Ringneck Pheasant Tail Feathers - Natural
• Hareline Swiss Straw - Gold
• Hedron Flashabou - Pearl
• Loon Hard Head Fly Tying Cement - Clear

Step One:

Seat the bead just behind the hook eye and create an underbody with lead wire. Start wrapping the wire at the hook point and continue all the way up to the bead. Push the wire against the bead to keep it in place.

Step Two:

Start your thread and tie in Coq De Leon for the tail of the fly. Measure the Coq De Leon feathers to be about the length of the body and tie them in just behind the lead wire. Make sure your tail fibers are on top of the hook shank.

Step Three:

Tie in the Brassie Wire just behind the body on the front side of the hook shank. Wrap your thread back to the bend of the hook then forward to secure the wire in place.

Step Four:

Dub the body. Pick lighter cheek hair from the Hare's Mask and create a dubbing noodle on your thread. Start wrapping the dubbing at the beginning of the tail and wrap it forward almost to the bead.

Step Five:

Palmer the Brassie Wire forward to rib the body. Take wide turns over the dubbing body. Once you wrap forward to where the dubbing ends, tie off the wire and helicopter the excess wire off.

Step Six:

Bring your thread back to just in front of the hook point and tie in the Flashabou wingcase. Tie the Flashabou in right on top of the hook halfway back on the body.

Step Seven:

Next, tie in the wingcase. Choose 6-7 Pheasant Tail fibers and tie them down just in front of the Flashabou. Be sure to tie the PT fibers right on top of the hook shank keeping the fibers flat and wide.

Step Eight:

Pull some darker fibers from the middle of the Hare's Mask and dub the Thorax. Create a dubbing noodle that's a little bit looser than the first noodle and create the Thorax by dubbing from PT feathers forward to just behind the bead. Finish with your thread in the middle of the Thorax.

Step Nine:

Tie in the legs. Using Swiss Straw, position the legs so that they're on either side of the Thorax as pictured above. Leave the excess, you can trim them to size later.

Step Ten:

Add more Thorax dubbing over the tie in point of the legs to add durability and a little more bulk to the fly. Cut the front legs so they don't get in the way.

Step Eleven:

Pull the PT feathers and Flashabou over the top of the Thorax dubbing to create the wing case. First, pull the feathers over and secure them with thread just behind the bead. Then, pull the Flashabou over and secure it in the same spot. Trim the excess feathers and flash.

Step Twelve:

Use another little piece of dubbing to cover the thread wraps right behind the bead. Whip finish. After you've gotten your thread out of the way, you can trim the legs down to the desired length.

Step Thirteen:

Add head cement on the wingcase to reinforce the fly and to add flash and shine.

Step Fourteen:

And that's the Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph with rubber legs! This is a great pattern for high water scenarios or muddy water scenarios when trout are more likely to eat a fly with a larger profile that has some movement in the water.

Questions?

Give us a call here at the shop at (888) 413-5211 or email us anytime at [email protected].