How to Tie the Metal Detector 2.0 Fly Pattern

Learn how to tie the Metal Detector 2.0 fly pattern, including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly-tying skills here.

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The Metal Detector 2.0 is the fly you need to find chrome. Designed as a summer steelhead fly it makes a great base pattern to modify to your needs. Shank or cut hook

Recipe

Thread - UTC 140 Olive
Tail - Bucktail Brown and Olive Mix
Body- UV Polar Chenille White
Collar - EP Sparkle Brush 3in Copper
Collar 2- Marabou Blood Quill Black

Video Transcript

Hey guys, Jerry from Trident Fly Fishing and today we're going to be tying another steelhead fly. This is the Metal Detector 2.0. It could be a number of different things - it could be a winter steelhead fly, it could be a summer or spring steelhead fly. It's very much more of a pattern than a specific fly. We're going to tie this one today in a sculpin color, unweighted, and we're going to get started on it right now.

In the vise today I just have a shank here, cut to length, whatever length you like. This is about an inch and a quarter, maybe a little longer. I'm going to be tying this in a sculpin color, so very olive with a little bit of black mixed in. These fish well when they're two-tone - black and purple, pink and purple, pink and chartreuse, and again black and olive.

The first thing I'm going to do is start some UTC 140 in olive on this. I like to start it right here, bring it back, and we're just going to cover this shank. We'll probably cover it up and down, just because we're going to tie some wire on this and I like to have a nice thread base for my wire so nothing moves around. I'm not going to glue my wire, but if you did, this thread base is going to allow that glue to stick.

I have Senyo's Intruder Trailer Wire in a large - just pick the size of the wire that matches your hook size. I'm going to double it over here and take a measurement of where I want my hook and how long it is. I'm just going to grab this, throw a pinch wrap on here, and it is going to lay straight. Work our way up here, keeping this on top of the hook shank for the most part. We're going to go right to this break here, right where the shank doubles over. We're going to pull our wire back, grab that, tighten it down. Let's check our length - a little long. I want this to come back most of the way, but I don't want it to interfere with my loop. Tie that down nice and tight, then pull the other side back. A little long, so I'll just grab a little pair of dikes here and cut those off. Make sure our wire is right on top - and it is. We're good to bring this back and tighten this down. I want to keep these on top of the shank as much as I can.

For a tail on this we can do a number of different things. I'm going to use bucktail today - I have olive bucktail mixed with a little bit of tan, which is going to give me the look I'm looking for. You can use craft fur, fox, arctic fox, or fin raccoon, which is popular on these. I like this bucktail because it gives me a good tapered look, it's a natural material, it moves well, breathes well, and I like to blend the colors. So I have my naturally tapered bucktail loosely stacked. I'm going to take a measurement - I want it to cover where my hook is going to be, so about right there, just longer than the length of the shank. I'm going to tie this in right on top and work it up, keeping it right on top for simplicity's sake and to keep this clean. I'm going to bring this right to where the shank doubles back and get rid of my butts, just covering them up and transitioning down.

The next thing we're going to do is tie in some UV Polar Chenille in UV White. You could probably use an olive color too, but I like this UV White because it's going to be like a sculpin belly - that's kind of the color combo we're going for today. We're going to tie it off right about there, so we'll leave our thread there. A good way to vary it up is to vary the density of this Polar Chenille. We're just going to wrap it and pull it back as we go. I don't want it too dense today, so I'm just going to take open spiral wraps that are almost touching, pulling that chenille back as I go, just creating a nice underbody. This UV Polar Chenille is not as dense as some other similar materials, so if you wanted a denser fly you could change it up. I'm just going to tie that off right there and get rid of my tag.

The next material I'm going to tie in is an EP Sparkle Brush in a root beer color. I'm going to use this end - it's a brand new one with a good bit of wire - so we're just going to tie this in, and while we have this extra wire let's just double it back to make sure it's super secure. We're going to take four to five wraps here. Density is up to you, but I want this to move some water. Like I said, this is going to be a sculpin high water spring fly - three, four, five, let's do one more half wrap. That looks pretty good to me. I'm just going to split this, come in here, try not to trap too many materials, and come in with our dikes. Let's pull this material back, cover up anything that's errant, brush it out a little bit with our fingers, and make sure it is what we want and nothing is trapped. You can already see we're creating that nice taper here.

The final material we're going to throw in is just going to be some black marabou. I have a blood quill and I'm going to tie it in by the tip. I'm just grabbing the tip and stroking the fibers back so I can get good access to just a plain stem. I have a little tie-in point here for my marabou and I'm going to fold it back. Because we're tying this in by the tip there's a good chance we'll break it, so you just want to be careful. As I wrap this forward I'm going to fold the fibers back. You can use water, saliva, or really sweaty hands like I have to make sure these are laying back. You may find this is easier if you use hackle pliers, but right now I'm anti-hackle plier. Let's take another wrap, just one more, and I think we'll have the correct density. I'm just coming in here and splitting this and trying to find the stem, just like I did with that brush. We did trap some, but we'll fix it in a second. Let's stroke everything back, make a little bit of a dam here to make sure those fibers are back, and we'll create a nice little head.

You can weight these with dumbbell eyes, cones, or a bead - I just prefer an unweighted fly right now. Let's whip finish. We got good spacing on that head, it looks clean. We'll throw some glue over the top and we'll be done.

That's the Metal Detector 2.0. Pretty simple, easy steelhead fly that can be varied up quite a bit. I've tied this light and in a sculpin color, and I'm very happy with how this is fishing. Thanks for watching guys, and we'll see you next time.