How To Tie Scotty’s McFly

This fly that I’m about to tie is the Scotty’s McFly and up here in Algoma Country, it probably was our most productive fly this past week, really incredible how the fish respond to it.

It starts with a Mustad 9671 hook in size 4, it’s a 3X long hook, kind of perfect for it – but a copper-colored conehead, it can be tungsten, it can be brass – anyway this fly has to be durable, it’s going to take a beating and so a couple of things to add a little weight to it, make it more durable. I’m using .02 lead-free wire and I’m going to take 10-12 wraps of that lead-free wire around the hook shank. So what I like to do to make this really durable, I’m going to take a little bit of super glue, I’ve pulled the conehead back, I’m just going to touch it to the shank behind the hook eye, move the cone forward then quickly slide those wraps up into the back edge of the cone. And super glue sets on pressure, and so you just keep the pressure on there for a little bit, super glue sets and it allows you to wind that little tag end in so we basically wasted no lead-free wire wrap, which can be little hard to find, and helps to stabilize the bead, and add some weight.

Thread is – the color is important – this is chartreuse 140 Denier, good strong thread but the chartreuse really makes the Scotty’s McFly pop.

The tail of the fly is going to be white marabou. It’s going to kind of cover up those wire wraps and make a little ramp down to the hook shank. I’m going to grab two marabou feathers. Now, for this tail I like it fairly long, maybe like a full hook and a half in length, I do like it long like that – get the marabou stems bound down really well and I’m pulling up and toward me to try to keep them on top of the hook shank as best I can. We’re not worried about the number of thread wraps here either, durability is way more important than anything else with these flies.

Now, a little bit of Flash, a little Flashabou, this is pearl Krystal Flash, goes a long way. Tie them in first going down one side, the idea is to separate the strands on either side of that marabou tail. I’m going to snip these off just a little bit longer than the tail on the near side, and then bring them in and do the same on the far side of the fly. Real important though to end with your tying thread right at the base of the tail.

Body of the fly is pearl mylar tubing and I’m going to go just a little bit longer, maybe a hook gap longer, than the length of the hook. I’m going to take my mylar tubing and slip it over the body of the fly, bring it back so it actually comes behind the hook bend a little bit. Pull your tying thread forward, take a wrap or two around, and then snug that down tight.

Now, if you have one, a large whip finish tool really helps here to get around that mylar tubing. We’re going to use that so we definitely don’t want to cut it off, do a 4 or 5 turn whip finish, seat that knot really really well, and then snip your tying thread free and, for durability, absolutely a drop of head cement to saturate those wraps back there. Let that sink in and dry.

Alright so I have my mylar tubing on there, that’s going to be the body of the fly. I’m going to take my tying thread and get it started, once again, on the hook shank, again 2 or 3 times around then snug it tight right behind that cone.

First thing we’re going to do is to tie in –  I’m going to go with a single here for the wing, just another white marabou feather and I’m going to go about halfway down the tail, let’s call this the wing of the fly. Get that lashed down really well, snip the excess off close.

Nice thing about this fly is, you can be a little messy with it and it’s still going to work just fine. One of the things we’ve noticed in fishing this past week is how the orange on this fly shows up incredibly well underwater, and gets them all worked up and ready to eat.

I’m going to get that, maybe not quite as long on that orange, treat it more as a throat rather than a wing, snip the excess off and then I am going to go back, just a few more strands of Krystal Flash. Snip the far side to length and I’m going to make sure everything is locked down really really well here, in fact, I’m going to saturate that with some head cement.

Take this forward-pointing portion of mylar tubing and shove it back over top of the cone – you can spread it out a little bit, it adds this nice frilly little collar back there, a lot of shine and really cleans up that area right behind the cone and to keep it, just so it doesn’t fray too much, I’m going to run just a little bead of head cement at the back edge of the cone, right around that mylar tubing, kind of locks the tubing to the cone and also keeps it from separating any further.

So, that’s Scotty’s McFly. Unbelievably effective for smallmouth up here in Algoma Country.