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How to Tie a Sowbug

Sowbugs may be a pest when they travel into your house, but they are a favorite food of fish, especially trout. Thus these wiry flies are quite useful as bait in luring the fish to their deaths. By catching the fly and tying it onto the hook, you can fill your net with plenty of fish to clean and eat. Like the fish that eat them, they inhabit the river.

Things You'll Need

Hook
Yarn threads
Dubbing
Olive hare's ear blend
Black flash tying thread
Head cement

Instructions

- 1
  Mix thee parts thin, untwisted yarn dubbing with one part olive hare's ear blend, which is another type of threaded dubbing fabric. Place these items in a plastic bag or other container.
- 2
  Wrap a gold coil on a hook, known as a lead. Wrap the thread around the lead so that it covers most of the coil. Start with the thread in front of the lead.
- 3
  Smash the lead flat on the hook. This helps to flatten the sow bug. Wind the thread taut around the hook. This keeps the thread from slipping off the hook.
- 4
  Tie in the black flash, which is a kind of tying thread. Ensure its proper alignment with the top of the hook. Then tie the wire on the opposite side.
- 5
  Apply the dubbing to the thread. Cover the whole length of the hook with the dubbing. Leave the eye of the hook visible.
- 6
  Pull the flash directly over the sowbug's top area. Tie the flash off.
- 7
  Wrap the wire four or five times over the dubbing, then tie off behind the eye of the hook.
- 8
  Whip finish once. Whip finishing is the process of tying a thread over itself, ensuring that it does not unravel from its head. Then pick out the dubbing with a Velcro pad.
- 9
  Hold the dubbing away from the sowbug. Then cut the dubbing from each side of the fly.
- 10
  Whip finish again. Apply head cement on the dead sowbug. Allow it to dry.

Insects & Science