Hedgehog (The Hot Arsed Leggy Claret Kind)

[just_steven]

I know the name is a bit of a mouthful, but it's just to show a couple of things I've added to my hedgehogs.
It's a bit more "faff" when you're tying, but I think it looks cool  and It's certainly caught plenty of fish for me in Orkney. On Hundland (known locally as Hedgehog City) especially!

Tie them up in any colour/colour mixture you can think of and they all seem to catch. Allan Liddle even ties them in pink! :gay4  :lol:
I would almost never go fishing in Orkney without giving my Orange Hedgehog a swim!

Hook ? Kamasan B170
Thread ? Black 8/0
Tag ? Orange Mylar Tinsel
Wing ? Deer Hair
Body ? Claret Seal?s Fur
Legs ? Knotted Pheasant Tail Fibres

[attachimg=1]

Step 1 ? Attach thread to hook.

[attachimg=2]

Step 2 (Optional) - Tie in length of orange mylar tinsel and wind around the bend. Add a touch of varnish to strengthen.

[attachimg=3]

[attachimg=4]

Step 3 - Select a small pinch of deer hair, align tips and tie in. Keep a hold of the tips to stop the hair from spinning.

[attachimg=5]

[attachimg=6]

Step 4 - Take a small pinch of dubbing (claret seals fur in this case), form into a dubbing rope and make 3 or 4 turns.

[attachimg=7]

Step 5 - Repeat steps 3 and 4

[attachimg=8]

[attachimg=9]

[attachimg=10]

Step 6 (Optional) - Tie in 2 sets of pheasant tail fibre legs on each side and cover with some more dubbing.

[attachimg=11]

Step 7 - Tie in a final bunch of deer hair and add a final bit of dubbing. Form a neat head, whip finish and add a drop of head cement. Finally take a piece of velcro and give the fly a good rub to scruff it up a bit.

A few more variations

[scotfly]

Excellent stuff! 

[Wildfisher]

Nice SBS Steve.

Remind me now, it was Stan Headley who invented these flies, wasn't it?   

[thewaterbouys]

   Nice wee touch to your hogs  Steve.

             Henry

[johnsd]

nice hogs stef another fly box to be guarded on stravaigers :lol: :lol:

[The General]

Does this work?


http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/41137BB89D5?m=B025091198.6FC63CD&z=6


Davie

[just_steven]

Thanks a lot for your nice comments guys!

I do believe this fly was created by Sandy Nicolson, but don't get me started on that! Bloody Sedgehog's MY ARSE! :lol:

Just for the record, doing a step by step is a lot trickier than Scotfly makes it look by the way!  :shock:
Let me rephrase that. Doing a SBS that looks half as good as Scotfly's is bloody tricky, but quite cool once you've actually done it! 

As for the hedgehog box John, there always seem to be a few more gaps after Noel's been having look in it! You just ask him what he caught that big Watten trout on! :lol:

I like to think the tag on this particular hog does make a difference, but I don't suppose it's that big of one. A claret hedgehog without one will still catch plenty of fish on its day.
My reason for it is that I would pick a fly out of the box with a tag rather than without everytime, because I like the look of it. I like to think it's down to the tag, that it catches a lot of fish.
HELL! Even my brother catches fish on it!  :crap

Cheers

Steve

[silverbutcher]

Hi Steve, what hook sizes do you tie these on?
I've only started learning to tie and I have tried tieing them in 10's and 12's. Would you tie them up any larger or smaller?

Billy
           

[just_steven]

Hi Billy,

I tie them up in 10's, 12's and 14's, but I mostly use the 10's and 12's as there always seems to be plenty of a breeze.
I actually tie most of them on B160's which have a shorter shank/bigger gape, so a size 8 is more like a 10 and so on.
The main tips I would give when you tie hedgehogs is to keep the bunches of deer hair small and not too long. Also keep a hold of the tips until you've got plenty of wraps on to stop it from spinning. Once you wind the dubbing on it tightens up the flared hairs, so don't worry about that too much.
Good luck with them!

Steve

[silverbutcher]

Thanks Steve, they look excellent.

All the best

Billy