Stewart’s Black Spider

W.C. Stewart in “The Practical Angler” of 1857 sets down this pattern as the first of the “spiders”. He was introduced to the fly by a fellow angler named Baillie who was famous in his time.

Recipe:
Hook – your choice but can be a wet fly or dry fly hook…I like 14 or smaller.
Thread – dark brown silk. Here I use Pearsall’s Jasper which is a dark brown/black with a cinnamon/sherry.
Feather – cock starling. Starling skins can be poor quality and a pain to tie with. A simple substitute is a black hen neck feather.

The tying method is important. There are many variations of method out there…a lot which tie in by the tip. I personally don’t like that, but suit yourself. If you prefer not to twist the feather onto the silk – which I admit is hard the smaller you go – then skip making a head and after tying in the feather by the root end and trimming, move your silk to the bend end of the body and wrap the feather back with hackle pliers and catch in there and trim off waste. Then with a wobbly wrap to not trap fibers wind your silk back through the wound hackle to the head and do a three turn whip finish making a small head at the same time. Pick out with a bodkin needle any trapped fibers and you’re done.

This fly imitates all sorts of bugs. I prefer to fish it upstream on a tight line “high sticking” or fixed line style. You can swing it though as well and other downstream methods.

This also not a bad fly in a tandem rig to trail a bead head.

Enjoy!