This week’s Tying Tuesday we’re starting on the surface with the Taco Tuesday, a bi-visible variation born from a decade of father-daughter tradition and a conversation about what colors belong in a taco. From there we drop into the drift with a Gradient Perdigon, a clean thread-body nymph whose color-stacked abdomen does the heavy lifting subsurface. Back topside, a Basic Beetle that’s about as quick to tie as it is effective, ready to fish anywhere beetles find water from late spring through summer. And anchoring the lineup is the Sculpin Slider—a deer-hair fly built to push water and provoke the biggest predators in the river.
Sculpin Slider
Hook: Ahrex TP605 Trout Predator Light, #1/0 or #1
Thread: White Bennechi 8/0; White GSP 100D
Eyes: Hareline Double Pupil Lead Eyes, olive/white & black pupil — medium (#1/0) or small (#1)
Body: Silver Ice Dubbing
Tail: Hareline Rabbit Strips, chinchilla
Head: Premo Deer Hair bleached; Spinning Cow Elk Medium, dun
Adhesive: Super glue; varnish
Basic Beetle
Hook: Size 16 200BL (sizes 18–20)
Thread: Black
Shell: CDC, 3 feathers
Body: PhD dubbing (peacock)
Gradient Perdigon
Hook: Ahrex FW555, size 14
Thread (body): TheFlySmith 52D nylon — yellow, wood duck, brown
Thread (collar): TheFlySmith 20D GSP chartreuse
Tail: CDL
Flash: MFC Kreelex
Rib: UTC XS chartreuse wire
Resin: UV Craft
Taco Tuesday
Hook: Size 12, 1XL barbless dry fly
Thread: Yellow
Body: Yellow dry fly hackle (undersized, grizzly dyed yellow), palmered
Wing: White calf tail
Collar: Brown dry fly hackle
