How to Tie the Rivet Fly: Classic Tarpon and Snook Pattern

Welcome back everybody it's Ryan again at Trident Fly Fishing. I am tying the variation of the rivet fly. The rivet is a classic South Florida Everglades tarpon slash snook fly. Also a great smallmouth striper fly. We're gonna tie it in different variations of the color olive today and we're starting with a Gamakatsu 2-0t SC-15 saltwater hook. A very sticky hook with a great reputation. I'm using 6-0t Vivas golden olive color thread and I'm going to start today by tying in right behind the hook eye and then trying to cover the hook shank as I wrap back towards the bend. And the first step after I get those threads in place, thread wraps in place, is I'm going to add the tail and I'm going to show you a little trick to make sure you restrict fouling of the tail as much as possible so you don't get in a situation where your tail wraps up and screws up your shot. I'm going to wrap back right about to the top right above the hook point a little further back than that towards the bend. And the first material you're going to tie in for the rivet fly is we're going to use some hairline strung hackle. This is the four to six inch grizzly hackle in lighter olive color. When you do this you're going to select two feathers and kind of marry them together. I've chosen these two because they're sort of similar length and width and I'm going to kind of arrange them so the tips are in the same spot. The length of the tail it's about three to four inches long and the really important part here tying on the rivet fly is that you want that tail to be tied in right directly at the top of the hook shank. And I'm going to use my left hand, my pointer finger, and my thumb to sort of hold the material, the two feathers, and pinch them right above the hook shank. So I'm right above the point of the hook a little further towards the bend. A couple loose wraps with my thread and that'll help me kind of eyeball. Now it looks pretty darn good. In other words it looks like it's tied in directly above the hook shank. It's not on either side. If you tie it in and it's it's kind of like leaning your way or leaning away from you, the problem is that when the fly tracks as you're stripping it'll tend to keel or kind of tilt to one side or the other. So now I have that material nice and even. I'm going to add a couple more firmer thread wraps to make sure that tail is really locked in place. When you get these longer tails, whether you're using rabbit strip or using saddle hackle, at some point you run into an issue with the tail once it's wet fouling or wrapping around the hook, right? So one thing that I want to do now that the tie-in material is right on top of the hook shank, so I'm going to add a little bit of monofilament as a guard to protect this tail from wrapping around the hook. Because the worst thing you want to do is have a shot at a tarp and you throw it out there, you strip your fly, and you notice the tail is all balled up around the hook itself. So I'm going to take this little shank of monofilament, 30-pound monofilament. I'm going to put it underneath the tail and have one end tied in right on the top of the hook, right on my side here, like so. Really lock that material in. And I'm going to add a loop. I'm going to push this back so that it's literally supporting that tail material. I'm not going too far back. I'm about an inch or so back beyond the hook bend. And then the other side of the mono, I'm going to pinch that and I'm going to tie it in right up against the first tie-in point so that both pieces of mono are right directly on the top of the hook shank. That's really important to add balance, make sure that the fly is balanced. And you'll notice that mono loop guard is literally supporting and holding off that tail material. Is it still possible for it to foul? Yes, but it'll happen far less often. I'm going to cut off that tag material. Now I'm going to add a little bit of flash. I'm going to use this Hairline Ice Fiber in Golden Tan. This is really kind of wispy material. I don't need a lot of it. And then tie them in right on top of the tie-in point for that mono loop guard. And I want it to go about 3 quarters of the way back on the tail. Cut that off. And this is like really light, delicate material. It breaks pretty easily. But it adds just enough of that flash so you don't feel like you're overdoing it. Cool. Next step, I'm going to add just a little bit of a cover for this tie-in point where I have this kind of bulge where the mono was tied. I'm just going to move my thread right in front of that little spot there on the hook shank. Now the next thing I'm going to add is just a little bit of color and a little bit of movement. Before I get to the spinning of the deer hair on the top or the front of the fly, I'm going to add a little bit of a body here. I'm going to use these Ginger Marabou Quills. You can palmer these in if you'd like. Today I'm just going to kind of place them on top of the hook shank and I'll show you how I do that. These are from Hairline as well. And you'll notice as you go through the package that some of these quills are, you know, better than others. The ones that are kind of ratty or missing stuff, missing fibers, I tend to kind of skip over those. Oh, and that's kind of full and flush. That's a good one there. You can see it has that nice sort of wavy material. It's really nice in the water. I'm going to pull out this really small flimsy piece. I'm just going to clip that right out and then I'm going to take about two inches or so. I'm going to kind of eyeball that, cut it off, and then place it right in front of the tie-in point for that mono loop guard. And some people will palmer this to go all the way around so that the underside is covered up as well. I don't think you really need to do that in this fly because we're going to add deer hair now that's going to do that same thing. So, you can see I have this nice color variation now from the olive to this sort of ginger colored, which is like a shrimpy, very fishy color. And then it kind of covers up and veils the mono loop guard. The underside, again, you can see it's a little more exposed, but I'm going to add deer tail or deer belly, I should say, that flares out and covers that up now. So, I'm going to move my thread forward and just kind of smooth out that spot a little bit. And the last bit of material here is, this is deer belly, and we're going to use this to create the head of the fly for the rivet fly. And this is, these are pretty thick fibers. I'm going to use, I'm going to kind of veiling underneath here and a little bit of the marabou as well. So, I'm going to take a clump here that's a little bit, about as wide as my thumb and pointer finger. I'm going to clip that off. This is going to be kind of pointed back towards the tail, and I want just enough to kind of cover up this section and give a little bit of a veil to the brown, but I don't want to cover up the brown entirely. So, I'm going to eyeball that, knowing that when I tie this in, I'm going to first use my left hand to kind of allow those fibers to go around the hook shank. So, now it's kind of like evenly distributed. I'm going to use a couple of loose thread wraps, and then I'm going to really pull down. And when you pull down with deer hair, especially this belly hair, you'll see it spike up like that. And now you can see I have this nice kind of veil that goes underneath the hook as well. It's evenly spread and sort of covering underneath the hook shank itself. And I have this situation where I, when you spin deer hair, you have all of this material that kind of fluffs up in front of you. You can see as I'm spinning, it continues to spin around the hook. One thing you can do to really lock it in is just pull a few of the fibers back and then do a couple more thread wraps in the middle of this material. And now what I want to do, rather than going around and trimming this now, I want to sweep all that material back with my fingers. And as I do that, I'm going to pull my thread forward and wrap right in front of that tie-in spot. Great. Just like that. Cool. And you can trim that if you want. I'm not going to now. I'm going to wait till the end to do that. Great. So, now I have that nice little veil. I'm going to move about a half inch forward from that last tie-in point. I'm going to get another clump of this deer belly. Again, about the width of my thumb and pointer finger. Cut down towards the hide. When this part flares up, as I know it will, I want it to be about the same length as what I have here. So, I'm eyeballing that. I'm going to hold that again in place and allow those fibers to kind of settle around the hook shank. A couple loose wraps and then I'm pulling down. And that will spin around like so. You can pull some of them back. Really lock them in place like that. And again, my job now is to pull those fibers back like that. It's amazing how you can kind of capture every single one of those. Really pull back with your offhand. In this case, it's my left hand. And then I'm going to tie in right in front of that tie-in spot. And you'll see there's a few stragglers. No big deal. You can always pluck those out. We're going to trim this as well. So, I'm not too worried about the shape of it right now. I'm going to advance that thread from the tie-in point about halfway between the tie-in point and the eye itself. Right about here. Great. And I have room for one more tie-in point with this deer belly. Same idea. I'm going to take enough to sort of cover my thumb and forefinger. Same idea. I'm going to eyeball it so that when it splays up, it's about as long as the existing fibers. A couple loose wraps. It will literally spin around the hook like so. And again, I can pull some of these back and lock them in with a few more thread wraps. And then when I feel comfortable with that, when I pull and I notice it's not spinning around the hook, that's when I can pull forward and sweep all that material back behind the eye. Some firm thread wraps in front. Really pulling back on those materials. And I'm just going to kind of finish that head here so it's got a little bit of width to it. It'll hold those fibers back. Great. Now, I can whip finish. I'm not done the fly, but I'm done adding materials to it. Now, we just do the haircut part, the trimming. Whip finish. Great. Now, really helpful at this phase when you're going to start trimming the deer hair to have a really sharp pair of scissors. I essentially want to create kind of a bullet shape to this head. And I can do that with a rotary vise. I can position my scissors at an angle and move. All I'm doing is moving the vise itself. I'm not moving my scissors. And this will create that kind of original taper that I'll work from. And again, you can get as specific or obsessive about the shape as you want. The one cut I'm going to do that's a straight cut is on the bottom of the fly. I'm going to position my scissors so that they're parallel to the hook shank. And I'm going to cut back towards the hook point with the scissors down into the hair a little bit like so. And these scissors could be a little bit sharper than they are. And that creates that nice flat bottom to the fly for its kind of tracking. And then I can use that cut to help me shape the rest of the fly. And I'm kind of tapering it. I'll do one more cut to get that a little bit closer. I could use a sharper pair of scissors. That would make my life a little easier. Great. So, now I have this nice tapered kind of look. And you could trim this down a little bit here if you want, if you wanted to kind of get into the nitty-gritty. But what I like about this is you have this tapered kind of bullet-shaped head. So, when this fly lands, it's going to land softly. And it's probably going to ride on the surface or right in the surface foam. So, when you strip, you're going to strip that fly underneath the surface a little bit. It's going to look like a wounded baitfish. It's also going to push a little bit of water, which is great. And again, that one flat cut is on the bottom. And then I'm kind of trimming around to shape. But you're left, the rivet's left with this nice kind of tapered head, bullet-shaped. It's a great all-around fly. For a saltwater fish, it's also a great bass fly. You can make that look like a frog. It's a great all-around fly. That is a variation of the rivet.