Fl. Orange Straggle String

Fl. Orange Semperfli Straggle String Micro Chenille

A hot spot is the smallest change that catches the most fish. Fl. Orange is the classic hot-spot shade for jig nymphs, and Straggle String’s thin core lets you add it without a lump behind the bead. The fibers give the collar movement that thread or tying wire can’t. It’s also the right size for egg heads on small steelhead flies, where a full chenille egg is too bulky.

Recipe 1: Hot Spot Jig Pheasant Tail

• Hook: Barbless jig hook, size 14 to 18
• Bead: Slotted copper or silver tungsten, 2.5 to 3 mm
• Thread: Semperfli Nano Silk, brown
• Tail: Coq de Leon fibers or pheasant tail fibers
• Abdomen: Pheasant tail fibers, ribbed with fine copper wire
• Thorax: Peacock or brown dubbing, slim
• Hot spot: Fl. Orange Straggle String, 2 wraps

Tying: Mount the bead and tie in a short tail. Wrap pheasant tail fibers forward as a thin abdomen and rib it. Dub a slim thorax, leaving a bead-width gap. Wind 2 wraps of Fl. Orange Straggle String against the bead, tie off, and whip finish behind the collar.

How to fish it: This is the Euro nymphing workhorse. The jig hook rides point-up, so you can bounce bottom without snagging. Fish it as the point fly through pocket water and riffle drop-offs, or as the dropper behind a heavier anchor. The orange collar earns its keep in high spring water and in fall, when trout are thinking about eggs.

Recipe 2: Mini Egg-Sucking Leech

• Hook: 2X-long streamer hook, size 6 to 10
• Weight: Lead-free wire or a black cone, optional
• Thread: Semperfli Nano Silk, black
• Tail: Black marabou, with 2 strands of purple Flashabou
• Body: Black Straggle String or black chenille, palmered with black saddle hackle
• Egg head: Fl. Orange Straggle String, 4 to 6 wraps built into a ball

Tying: Tie in a marabou tail about a shank long. Tie in the hackle and body, wind the body forward, and palmer the hackle over it. Stop a quarter shank behind the eye. Build a round egg head by stacking Fl. Orange Straggle String turns on top of each other, then whip finish.

How to fish it: Swing it for steelhead and sea-run browns on a sink tip, letting it hang at the end of the swing. For resident trout and Alaskan rainbows behind spawning salmon, dead drift it or strip it slow along drop-offs. The same fly fishes well for sea-run browns in Tierra del Fuego and trout below spawning beds in Chile.