How to Tie a Size 16 Yellow Humpy

Producer: Tim Flagler

A size 16 Humpy is a phenomenal small-stream, tumbly water fly. . . right up there with a Royal Coachman or an Ausable Wulff in the same size. They can, however, be a bit tricky to tie.

Starting with the right hook is critical. I’ve found a dry fly hook with a little extra length, like this Dai-Riki #300, works especially well. Begin by getting the hook firmly secured in the jaws of your tying vise.

For thread, I’ve loaded a bobbin with a spool of UTC 70 Denier in yellow. Get the thread started on the hook shank behind the eye, and take a few wraps rearward before snipping off the excess tag.

Now here’s a little trick. I’m going to use yellow rabbit fur dubbing but you can use whatever you have on hand. Pull just the smallest clump free from the packet and use it to create an extremely slender, inch-and-a-half long noodle on your tying thread. Start taking wraps with the noodle so the dubbing begins about 1/4 of the way down the hook shank. Then take touching wraps rearward to the start of the hook bend. I know the dubbing seems a bit weird but trust me, it will really help later on.

I like to use moose body hair for the tail of the fly, although you can certainly use elk hair if you prefer. Snip a small clump free from the hide then strip out any shorter hairs and fuzzy fibers from the butt ends. You only want to keep the longest hairs of the clump. Place the hair, tips first, into a small stacker and give it a couple of taps. Then angle the stacker to concentrate the hair in the bottom of the tube. Get hold of the hair tips with your left hand and pass them to your right, doing your best to keep them aligned in the process.

Measure to form a tail a hook shank in length then transfer that measurement rearward to the location of your tying thread. Start taking wraps of thread to bind the hair to the top of the hook shank. You should notice how the dubbing below stops the slippery hair from wanting to spin around the hook shank. I think you’ll find many other occasions where a dubbing base like this really helps out. Lift the butt ends of the moose hair up and snip them off close, then take a few more wraps forward to cover them. Leave just a little bit of dubbing exposed to help with tying in the wing.

I greatly prefer elk hair for the wings and hump of the fly. White-tailed deer hair is just too thin and brittle. Snip about a half-a-pencil diameter worth free from the hide and, as you did with the moose body hair, strip out the fluffy stuff and shorter hairs. Place the cleaned hair, tips first, into your stacker and give it a good stacking. Open the stacker so the tips point toward the front of the fly and retrieve them with your right hand, then pass them to your left. As always, try to keep the tips aligned in the process.

Measure to form a wing a hook shank in length then transfer that measurement forward to the location of your tying thread. Take two fairly loose collecting wraps with your thread, then pull down slowly but firmly to close those wraps down and flare the hair. Once again, the dubbing beneath helps to stop the hair from wanting to spin around the hook shank. Continue taking touching wraps rearward with your tying thread to further bind down the hair. Then, without letting go of the hair, pull the clump up and snip the butt ends off close. Take a few wraps of tying thread rearward to lightly cover the butts and further secure the hair. Pull the wing back and check to make sure you have approximately an eye-length-and-a-half space left behind the back edge of the hook eye. When you’re happy with the amount of space, start taking thread wraps to build up a dam at the base of the wing to hold it up.

Separate the elk hair into two equal clumps and take cross wraps between them. This can be a little fussy so take your time. Two cross wraps each way should be plenty. Then take a full wrap around the hook shank to effectively save your work. Follow these cross wraps with figure 8 wraps between the wings – 2 full figure 8’s are usually enough to really get the wings separated and angled correctly. Once again take a full wrap around the hook shank then do two posting wraps around each wing to neaten and firm things up. Wrap rearward to in front of the hook point, then take a breath and admire your handiwork.

Go back to the same patch of elk hair you used for the wings and this time snip free about half the amount of hair as before. Once again, clean and stack the hair. But, this time, with the clump in your left hand, snip the very tips off square. Place the snipped-off tips on top of the hook shank and against the previously snipped-off butt ends of the wing. Take nice tight thread wraps rearward to anchor the hair. Make sure you go all the way back to the start of the bend. Continue taking thread wraps forward to smooth out the body a little. Advance your thread to in front of the wing and reach for your whip finish tool. Use it to do a 3 or 4 turn whip finish, seat the knot well and snip or cut your tying thread free.

Bright yellow Uni-Stretch makes building up the body of the fly so much easier than just using your tying thread. The stuff really and truly changed my whole outlook on Humpys. Get the Uni-Stretch started toward the rear of the fly then snip off the excess tag, being careful not to snip any elk or moose hair in the process. Take wraps with the Uni-Stretch to build up a bulbous little abdomen on the fly. You want it to be fairly large but not so big that it closes down the hook gap. End in front of the wings. Once again reach for your whip finish tool and use it to anchor the Uni-Stretch before snipping or cutting it free.

Trade the Stretch in for your yellow tying thread and get that started somewhere on the shank. Yes, you could’ve done all of this and left both both bobbins attached to the fly, but I’ve actually found this way to be much easier. Position your thread about an eye-length back from the wing. Pull the elk hair forward over the back of the fly and take two collecting wraps to secure it, then pull down to compress the wraps and the hair beneath. As with the wing, take thread wraps rearward, not forward, to lock the hair in place. Pull the butt ends of the hair back and trim them off close, before covering them up with wraps of tying thread. There always seems to be a hair or two that simply won’t cooperate.

As if the fly wasn’t already complicated enough, I’m going to use both brown and grizzly hackles to hackle the fly, I think it makes a difference. Because of how much material is built up around the hook shank, I like to slightly undersize the hackle so for this size 16 hook, I’m going to choose a feather more suited to an 18. I’ll measure a grizzly hackle in the same manner before plucking it free from the skin. Lay the fibers together with their shiny sides facing you and strip away some of the lower, webby fibers. Snip the stems off, leaving about 1/4” of bare stem. Place these stems against the near side of the hook and take nice tight thread wraps to secure them. Trim the stems off even with the back edge of the hook eye then take thread wraps to secure them. End with your thread at the back edge of the eye.

Get hold of one of the hackle feathers and start taking wraps with it. You want to leave just a little bit of space between the wraps, 2 turns behind the wings and 1 or 2 in front generally work well. When you reach your tying thread, use it to anchor the feather’s tip then carefully snip the excess and any errant fibers off close. Now start taking wraps with the 2nd hackle, in between the wraps of the first. Here I’ve done 2 in back and 2 in front, before anchoring the tip with thread wraps. Snip the second hackle tip off close along with any wonky fibers. Pick up your whip finish tool one last time and use it to do a 4 or 5 turn whip finish, seat the knot well and snip or cut your tying thread free. A drop of head cement applied to the wraps and allowed to sink in will ensure nothing comes unraveled.

Yeah, a lot goes in to this little fly and there are certainly other methods for tying them but this is what works for me. I used to hate to tie Humpys, especially smaller ones like this, but now I actually kind of enjoy it.