How to Tie the Yellow Humpy Dry Fly

Learn how to tie the Yellow Humpy Dy 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 Yellow Humpy is a classic attractor dry fly initially tied by Jack Horner in the 40s. He needed a fly that would sit high and dry in the fast-moving streams he frequented in northern California. Word on the pattern's attributes spread fast, Horner's Humpy quickly made its way to the Yellowstone region, and the rest is history. The Yellow Humpy is a time-tested pattern that has filled up dry fly boxes worldwide. The deer hair and heavy hackles give the fly buoyancy, so don't be afraid to run a dropper nymph off its bend. Trust us, this fly floats! Follow along as Karl provides a step-by-step breakdown of how to tie the Yellow Humpy!

Recipe

• Hook: TMC 100 size 12
• Thread: Semper Fi Nano Silk 12/0 in Yellow
• Back and Wing: Hareline Premo Deer Hair Strip in Natural Brown
• Tail: Hareline Moose Body Hair
• Body: Veevus Floss in Yellow
• Hackle: A Grizzly and a Brown Hackle feathers from a Whiting

Video Transcript

Hello, I'm Karl at Trident Fly Fishing. Today we're going to tie a fly called the Humpy. It comes in a couple of different color variations. This one's going to be in yellow. From what I've been able to find, the fly originated in California in the 1940s. It's an attractor type fly, utilizes a lot of deer hair and heavy hackle. Really buoyant, great for fast water, and if you're going to run a dropper, it's a great indicating fly. We'll get a TMC 100 in size 12 in the vise, Semper Fly NanoSilk in 12/0. I typically see this fly tied from a 10 to a 16.

We'll start with our thread just a little over an eye length behind the hook eye, and lay down a short thread base where the wing's going to be. Our wing is going to be made from deer hair. I've got a little bit of it here in a stacker - it's probably about a half a pencil width in diameter. We want this wing to be the length of the shank of the hook. We're going to measure that out, like so, and then make a couple of pinch wraps to hold that in place, and then start making wraps backwards. Don't let go of the butt ends as you wrap back. It'll make it much easier to cut off the butts. Hanging on to the butts, we're going to sneak in here with the scissors and cut this off at an angle, like so. Now we're going to wrap back forward, move our thread up in front of the wing, and form a thread dam - maybe five, six, seven turns or so. That's going to stand the hair up for us.

We're going to separate that hair into two individual clumps, or two wings. Take some turns around that hair to separate it, then some figure eight turns to further separate the hair. If you want, you can take a few turns around each wing itself to separate it even more. Now I like to just pull all that forward and get it out of our way for the remainder of the tie.

We're going to run our thread back to where we tie our tail in - right above the barb of the hook, right at the point. The tail material we're going to use is moose hair. Cut several strands, get them in the stacker, and tap that a few times on the bench to even up the tips. I'm going to measure that against the hook shank and tie that in right on top. Run our thread forward to where the butts of the winged deer hair ended. Then we're going to snip off the excess material and clean that up a bit.

The next material we're going to tie in is going to be the back of the fly. That's going to be more deer hair. Snip off a small clump here - you don't need too much of this. One of the mistakes that I see people make with this fly is they use too much material on the back of the fly, and it makes it really thick and ill-proportioned. Get that in the stacker and even up the tips. I'm going to snip off those tips and tie that in. You want to hang on to these butt ends and hold them up off the hook shank at a 45-degree angle. That's going to keep these right on top of the hook shank and won't allow them to wrap around it. We'll wrap all the way back to the base of the tail.

For the belly of the fly, we're going to use some yellow floss. This is Veevus. Tie that in and run it all the way back to the base of the tail, then come back forward with the thread just behind the wing. We're going to make overlapping turns around the body of the fly to make a nice, smooth belly. We're going to stop just short of the wing because we have the back to tie in and some hackles.

Now we're going to tie in the back. Get a hold of those butts, pull them straight up and away from the tail fibers, and without twisting them - keeping them nice and straight - lay those across the back in between the two wings. Take a look at your fly and make sure it's centered. Take three turns over that and pull that tight. Without letting go of all of those butt ends, sneak in here with the scissors and cut that off. Clean that up.

Now we're ready to tie in the hackle. We use two different hackles for this - a grizzly and a brown, both sized to the hook, in this case a 12. To prepare these, snip off some barbules from the end and leave some small stubs. Those stubs give the thread something to grab hold of, and it's much less likely that the hackle is going to pull out when you're wrapping it in. I tie these both in together - I lay the grizzly over the brown. You don't have to do it that way. You can tie them in one at a time if you wish. Tie those in right behind the wing with the concave side toward the fly. Now move the thread forward to the hook eye.

The first one we're going to wrap is going to be the grizzly. This is a really nice, rich feather, so probably three turns is all it's going to take to fill that up. Pull your wing back and as close as you can get to the wing, take a turn. Tie that off and get in there with the scissors. Now the brown goes in between the grizzlies. Pay attention to your wing - you don't want to trap it and not realize you've done that until you're all done with the fly. Just like with the grizzly, pull the wing back and tuck that in as tight as you can. That stands the wing up nice for you. Tie that off and make a few turns around that to start forming a nice head, being careful not to trap any of the hackle feathers.

The last thing we're going to do is make a four or five turn whip finish on the fly - again, try not to trap any hackles. Cut that off and add a little head cement. And there's your completed fly.

All the materials used for this fly today are available at TridentFlyFishing.com, and I'd like to encourage you to patronize the store. Thanks for watching and I'll see you again next time.