How to Tie the Troutsman Hex Dry Fly

Learn how to tie the Troutsman Hex Dry Fly pattern, including step-by-step instructions, a video tutorial, pictures, and much more. Improve your fly-tying skills here.

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There are a number of different ways to tie a fly representing this big Hexagenia Mayfly. This one by Kelly Gallop is my favorite. It's big, easy to see and floats high in the water. During the month of July there are always a few of these in my dry fly box. It's pretty much a nocturnal hatch but I've fooled fish with this in the middle of the day. These are big bugs and can be tied on a size 4 - 10.

Recipe

• Hook: Mustad R43 1XF/3XL size 10
• Thread: Danville 6/0 Flymaster; Yellow
• Body Belly: Hareline Yellow Bucktail
• Body Back: Hareline Natural Deer Hair
• Tail: Hareline Moose Body Hair
• Wing: Harline White Calf Tail
• Hackle: Whiting Grizzly Cape Hackle
• Whiting Coachman Brown Cape Hackle

Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Carl at Trident Fly Fishing. Today we're going to tie the Troutsman's Hex. There's a number of flies out there that represent this big Hexagenia Mayfly, but this one by Kelly Gallop is my favorite. It's a big fly, it's easy to see, it floats really high in the water, and during the month of July here in the east, these are always in my fly box.

The hook we're going to use today is a Mustad R43 in size 10. Kelly says you can tie this all the way up to a size 4 - this is a big fly. This is a one extra fine, three extra long hook. The thread we're going to be using today is a UTC GSP 75 in yellow. We'll get this started about two eye lengths behind the hook eye, wrap back about halfway to form a thread base, and back forward.

Our wing will be the first thing that we tie in. That's going to be some white calf tail. This is really tough stuff to stack, so the best way to even this out is to just pull the hair out perpendicular to the bone, get in there with your scissors and cut off what you need. We want to strip out all of the fine, short hairs and fuzzies. We want this wing to be a hook shank in length, so we'll measure that out. We're going to tie that in right on top of the hook with good tight wraps. Wrap back about halfway, and trim this off at a bit of an angle so we can start to develop a bit of a taper. Wrap back forward, jump our thread in front of the wing, and form a thread dam to start to hold the wing up.

We're going to divide the wing into two equal clumps and make some crossing wraps and figure eight wraps to separate them. Then we'll make some posting turns - maybe four of them - up the wing to further separate it. As you pull back, you can see that it straightens the wing out, which is what we want. We'll take one wrap around the body to anchor that in place, and do the same thing to the other wing. Pull back, straighten the wing out, take a wrap around to secure it, stand that wing up, and pull it forward just a little bit to get it out of our way. We've got a few stragglers here we'll get rid of and neaten this up a bit.

The next material we're going to tie in is the belly of the fly. This is going to be some yellow bucktail. You don't need a large clump of this - you just need enough to cover the base of that hook. Strip out all of the short stuff that you don't need, and we're going to tie this in on the bottom of the hook. This can be a little bit tricky. Wrap back to the bend of the hook, keeping everything on the bottom. A few strays up here to get rid of.

Next we're going to tie in our tail. That's going to be some moose body hair - only need five or six strands of this. We want these to be the length of the hook plus maybe a hook gap. Tie these in on top, wrap up to where our wing ended its tie-in point, and snip off the excess. Wrap forward again to behind the wing.

Now we're going to form the belly of the fly. We're going to take that yellow hair and stretch it across the bottom of the fly and tie that off. Snip off the excess. A few more wraps just to make sure that's good and secure.

The next material we're going to tie in is the back of the fly. That will be some natural colored deer hair, a clump about the same size. We're going to measure this out so that it's just past the bend of the hook. Change fingers, cut off all the excess, and tie that in right on top with a couple of good tight turns - don't let go of the hair. Keeping the hair in your fingers, make some open spiral turns back, not crushing the hair too much. This contributes a lot to the buoyancy of the fly. When we get to the back, make two turns and pull it a little bit tight to kind of flare that out. Then make some crossing spiral wraps back up front, representing the segmentation of the fly, and finish with some tight turns.

Next we're going to tie in our hackle. This is going to be Coachman Brown and Grizzly, sized to the hook - this is a size 10. Prepare these by snipping off the barbule fibers on either side of the stem, leaving some stubs. I almost always tie these in with the Grizzly in front, and then use the Coachman Brown to color the fly darker if I want. This is a fairly heavily hackled fly, so we're probably going to make a good four turns. Tie those in behind the wing.

Find the trusty hackle pliers and start making wraps forward behind the wing, then jump in front of the wing and get rid of the excess. Now the Coachman Brown, working in between the Grizzly. When we reach the eye, we'll tie that off. Now we're just going to form a small head and pull our hackle back.

Once we're happy with the size of the head, we'll take our whip finish tool and make a four or five turn whip finish, trying not to capture any of that hackle. I always manage to catch one or two. Cut the thread - and I did catch one. Last is some head cement. This is Loon's Water-Based. Let that soak in a bit and get rid of the excess.

If you want, you can add some UV resin or some head cement to the back and the belly of this fly. That will add a little bit to the durability. And with that, our fly is finished. Feel free to add comments below, and don't forget to hit that subscribe button to keep up to date on all the current content here at Trident Fly Fishing. Thanks for watching, and I hope to see you again next time.