I’ve seen a few hawthorn flies about recently so I thought it woud be the right time to post this pattern which I had a decent amount of success with last year. If you’ve seen a Hawthorn fly that’s been blown onto the water you’ll know that it looks like a gangly black mess - so that’s what I set out to imitate using only black organza ribbon (plus a bit of foam for the head).

Hook: Tiemco TMC2499SP-BL size 10 to 14
Thread: Uni 8/0 black
Tail: Furled organza
Body: Organza
Legs: Organza
Head: Foam cord

1.  Catch the thread in at the eye, take down to the bend in touching turns and secure along shank with a thin coat of superglue.
2.  Cut two 10cm lengths of 1 cm wide black organza ribbon. Cut the ribbon lengthways about 3mm in from the woven edge. Strip out the long fibres from each length and then trim the remaining short fibres for 1cm at either end of the strips back to the woven edges. Melt the ends of these sections with a cigarette lighter, this will prevent any risk of the prepared strips unravelling at the next step.
3.  Place the prepared strips on your bench lying back to back with the woven edges together. Now pick up the two strips together with the ends pinched between finger and thumb of each hand. Twist the strands together by rolling the ends, this will make the short fibres splay out from the twisted core strands. Once the strands are tightly twisted bring your hands together to form a loop and place the loop over the hook in the vice. The hook makes a handy ‘third hand’ at this stage; the trick now is to pull down on the loop and transfer all of the strands to between the finger and thumb of your tying hand.
4.  Lift the twisted loop off the hook and while gripping the base of the loop use the fingers of your other hand to encourage the loop to twist together to form the furled body. Now transfer the furled body to this hand keeping a tight hold at the base of the furled loop, place on top of the hook and catch in with a pinch and loop with the furled body hanging behind the bend. Keep a firm grip on the end strands and bind down tightly along the shank, trim off the excess organza and return the thread to the bend.
5.  Cut another 10cm length of black organza, cut to 5mm wide and strip out the long fibres. Trim the short fibres from one end to make a tying in tag and catch in at the bend with the strip hanging behind the hook with the short fibres pointing down. Bind down the tag and take the thread up to 5mm from the eye.
6.  Cut a 2cm length of foam cord and tie in with the foam projecting over the eye.
7.  Cut a 10cm length of black organza and cut strips from both sides 1mm in from the woven edge and discard the centre section. Melt both ends with a lighter and tie an overhand knot 1cm from the end of each strand to form legs. Tie in two legs either side of the shank with the legs trailing back under the furled body. Take a few figure of eight turns behind the legs to pull them out from the body, bind down the leg roots and trim away the excess. You can add more legs if you want, but I’ve not noticed that it makes any difference to fish attraction; as Richard Walker observed, fish can’t count and four legs make the fly more accurate to cast than more generously endowed versions.
    8.  Lift the furled body and take three turns of organza around the shank under the body, take a turn over the body and then wrap the organza up the shank through the legs using a turn between the pairs of legs to separate them. Continue up the body, lift the foam head and take a couple of turns before tying in and trimming away the excess.
9.  Apply a thin coat of superglue to the thread next to the hook, make a whip finish behind the eye under the foam head and cut the thread.

Hi Nick,

I really like your Hawthorn Fly.

I think the fuzziness that you are achieving using Organza is terrific.

It’s something I have tried to do over the years to achieve and to match the natural.
Micro chenelle is good ,but I like to try other things.It’s good fun.

I have been tying up some of your other patterns only this week.
I need a bit more practise to make sure the fibres “kick out” rather than
flop backwards onto the hook shank when wet.

Is there a “maximum” length that you would recommend for the length of the fibres so they don’t “bend” back.
I’m not sure yet if this is one of my problems.

I’m still using clear elastic beading for the “rib” to support the Organza.
It seems to work well for me.

I’ve been playing around a bit,and have been using the longitudinal fibres to make up some Organza dubbing.

I’ve been using it for bodies and once you have it on,
you can set about it with velcro in a heavy handed way,which is just short of using a wire buff.
By that I mean it is very very durable.

The end result is you end up with a really good open dubbing which to my eye competes with seals fur.
( If that does not get a reply , God knows what will.)
It gives a tremendous colour or hue in the water.

The legs of your Hawthorn have also solved another of my problems which is I have been playing around with,
trying to put together, a new pattern for little brown grasshoppers which are abundant at some of the Hill Lochs I fish.

I can see from your Hawthorn an easy way to form the femur and leg now.

I have been using thin elastic beading cord but as you can probably see from the photo
the result is rubbish, so its back to the sketch book, to draw out the ideas.

I’ve added a photo of the Hawthorn I use.
It works well for me but I’m looking forward to, incorporating the good ideas from your Hawthorn.

Thanks for a great innovative fly,

Tight lines ,

Gavin

Hi Gavin,

Glad you liked the hawthorn pattern. Your idea of using the long discard fibres in dubbing is very good, and shows the value of the forum in generating new methods. I hadn’t thought of it, all my long fibres go straight in the catch bin under my vice. Do you dub the fibres long or chop them up before mixing with other materials ?

Organza strands do lie back along the body when wet, but like lots of materials that’s only when the fly is wet and out of the water when surface tension pulls the fibres together. When the fly is in the water the fibres pulse around the body with movement. The same is true of marabou and other soft long fibres; out of the water wet fibres stick together, in the water they separate. I use organza fibres of an inch or more for bodies on saltwater flies and they separate and well in the water. Using brown organza at the rear of the hook and red or orange at the front to imitate gills and then adding a wing of DNA fibres, bucktail, or frosty fish fibres can give great baitfish patterns for bass and pollack.

Cheers,

Nick

Hi Nick,

I chop up the longitudinal fibres.
Say around ½ inch long and add a mix of some shorter fibres and also some
longer fibres up to say ¾ inch.

I’ve only been doing this for a short time, since the publication of your article,
so I can’t really say what is the “correct blend”.

The organza dubbing feels a bit coarse on my fingers and I find that you do need
to wax the thread first

Once the dubbing is on and you have roughed it up with Velcro,
you will see it has, similar reflective properties in the water
as the Organza ribbon.
It’s really a terrific material.

Another real advantage is ,about three weeks ago I was out shopping for
an empty dubbing box because you end up with a lot of quality dubbing
which has cost you pennies compared to the typical £25 per box of propriety
dubbings which are for sale.

I have also bought the gold and silver Organza ribbons.

The longitudinal fibres are interesting in that they are very fine translucent
material which reminds me of “optic fibres” which I have been playing
around with for quite a few years now to transmit light.

The longitudinal fibres are not the same type of material
as in other Organza ribbons.

I have still to find the time to try and use them, but I can think of
a few applications,if I can make them work.

If I can’t then I will still have enjoyed the fun of trying.

Tight lines

Gavin

P.S. try using the long stands of Organza in the tails of your marabou lures
in place of say crystal flash, it gives a much more subtle,finer and diffuse
reflective look to the flies.You mix the fibres through the marabou.

Hate to say it, but it does give them a more upmarket look.
I wonder if the trout or salmon are discerning about where they purchase their food?
Gavin

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for the detail on the dubbing technique, and for the tip in blending the long fibres into damsel tails, I’ll try out both approaches in a variant of the damsel I posted on the forum previously - marabou and long organza fibres in the tail, with a body of dubbed organza and an organza rib to stop tail wrap.

Cheers

Nick