Greenwell's Spider Soft Hackle

Traditionally this pattern was designed to imitate what they call the Olives, and tied in olive.  Cannon Greenwell and James Wright are the originators of this pattern and it is still one of the most popular North Country Spider patterns to this day. I have taken that to be like a Green Drake, or green Mayfly.  The charts I've seen for this range from size 10 to size 16.  I tie and fish them in sizes 10 through 20 to fish during Green Drakes, Flavs, and BWOs. I've also tied it in a Rusty Brown for a March Brown Spider as well.  

This pattern is best fished in the top few inches of the water column.  It is deadly effective on a swing by itself or trailing behind a dry fly.  We have found fish to LOVE taking them as a trailer giving us two chances to get a strike.  If you are lucky you may even end up with a double with two aggressive fish taking each fly!

Fly Tying Tutorial

Materials List:

Hook: Moonlit Togatta Premium Barbless Hook ML102 sz12 through sz18 (ML052 10-20)

Thread: Semperfli Classic Waxed 8/0 or 12/0 Pale Olive

Rib: Semperfli Tying Wire .2mm Bright Damsel Green or .1mm Hot Green Thorax (Optional): Vicunna Dubbing Olive Dun or Green Peter for UV aspect

Hackle: METZ #1 Hen Skin Furnace or Furnace Variant

 Variations