Butcher

Wet fly imitating baitfish, for trout and sea trout. Advanced. Jewhurst and Moon, 1838.

A red tail, a flat silver tinsel body with a wire rib, a black hackle throat and paired blue-black mallard wing slips.

Materials

Steps

  1. Attach thread Attach the thread at 90% of the way along the shank with a few turns and trim the tag end.
  2. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  3. Tie in: red-dyed duck quill slip Pick a feather about 0.18× the gape wide. Tie in the red-dyed duck quill slip so the tips reach well past the bend (1.1× the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 8° up from the shank. A narrow slip, on top at the bend.
  4. Tie in: silver wire Tie in the silver wire with a few firm thread turns.
  5. Tie in: silver flat tinsel Tie in the silver flat tinsel with a few firm thread turns.
  6. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to 88% of the way along the shank in touching turns.
  7. Wind: silver flat tinsel Wind the silver flat tinsel forward to 88% of the way along the shank in 14 turns. Touching turns, smooth and untapered.
  8. Tie off: silver flat tinsel Tie off the silver flat tinsel with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  9. Wind: silver wire Wind the silver wire forward to 88% of the way along the shank in 5 turns.
  10. Tie off: silver wire Tie off the silver wire with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  11. Tie in: black hen hackle fibres Tie in the black hen hackle fibres under the shank as a beard, reaching 0.9× the gape back. Reaching about to the hook point.
  12. Tie in: blue-black mallard secondary slips Pick a feather about half the gape wide. Tie in the blue-black mallard secondary slips so the tips reach to the start of the bend (twice the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 10° up from the shank. Matching left and right slips, concave sides together, set on top with a pinch-and-loop.
  13. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread. A smooth, tapered black head.

History

First called Moon's Fly. Smedley (Fly Patterns and Their Origins) says it came from John Jewhurst of Tunbridge, Kent, and that William Blacker renamed it about 1838 after the trade of Mr Moon, a butcher who favoured it. Other accounts make Moon and Jewhurst joint inventors, place them in Tunbridge Wells, or give 1836. The colours as blood, blade and apron are a popular story; Timo Kontio calls it a theory.

Fishing it

A winged wet fly for rivers and still waters. Global FlyFisher's video puts its close relative, the Bloody Butcher, on a middle dropper or the point of a team of wets, on lochs and lakes as well as rivers, and ties it bigger for sea trout, even as a streamer. Fly sellers describe its silver body and dark wing as suggesting a small fish.

Sources