The Fly of April   
       
                       Niku's Tube
Text and Photos: SFM-toimitus
Dressing: SFM-toimitus

Tubeflies are flies for floody rivers. Specially they are good, when fishing spring or autumn time salmons and seatrouts. They work in the sea,  You can fish with flyfishing equipments, but you can use even reel and rod. Spinfluga is a metod with short (30 cm) leader for the weight and about rod long leader for the fly. The weight leader should be the thinnest, so you loose only the weight, when you have bottom touch. The large silhoutte of a tubefly is very visible to the fishes in muddy waters, too. In a way the tubeflies are the wobblers of flyfishermen.

Nikolai Holttisen has developped this fly specially for seatrout fishing in springtime rivers. The basic dressing teqniue and mother models of foxflies are originally from Sweden. There are some fine finesses, which help a tier,  in Nikolai's dressing style. This golden body, yellow-orange- black winged tubefly has been excellent in seatrout fishing.

 
     

Fasten the tube to the vise like in the picture with the help of a salmon hook. Leave free room in the back about half an inch to set the treble hook. Base the tube with thread and tie the tag with 4-5 rounds of oval golden tinsel.

     

Tie the tail of pinf polypropylene, and the butt of black wool. fasten the oval golden tinsel.

     

Fasten the yellow hackle so, that the shaft stayes long under the whole body.

    

Tie the body of flat golden tinsel.

    

Tie the bodyhackle on its place with the rib. Tie the fronthackle of red hackle.

    

Tie the underwing of yellow fox hairs. Let this level stay as one bunch, so it helps the wing to hold up. Tie the middlewing of orange fox and spread this level to the sides, too. Add two stripes of hologrammic flashabou on both sides. The strips should be a bit different in length, so they do not fasten to each other in water. When you hold the dressing like in the picture, while working with the upperwing, you save many round of the thread and the head will be nice and small.

Tie the upperwing of black fox and spread it to the sides. Add again stripes of flash on both sides. Use super glue to finish the head.

You can tie the middle- and upper wings with following method, too. Then the foxhairs will be under two layers of the thread and the fly is more durable.

       

Fasten the hairs so, that the tips are forward.

       

Bend the hairs backwards and spread them to the sides, too. The head will be larger, but the fly is more durable.

Dressing:

Tube: A special tube by Hannu Lehtonen 
Tag: Golden oval tinsel
Butt: Black wool
Tail: Pink polypropylene
Rib: Golden oval tinsel
Body: Flat golden tinsel
Bodyhackle: Yellow cock hackle
Fronthackle: Red cock hackle
Underwing: Yellow fox and 4 stripes of hologrammic flashabou
Middlewing: Orange fox and 4 stripes of hologrammic flashabou
Upperwing: Black fox and 4 stripes of hologrammic flashabou

This excellent new tubematerial used in this dressing you can order from Hannu Lehtonen. He has a very good flytying super glue, too.

Hannu Lehtonen: