Wray’s Shad Dart

[Bryan W]

Wray’s Shad Dart

 

I must give credit where credit is due.  I was surfing the net one day and I stumbled across warwaterflyfisher.com, and found the
“typical
shad dart”.  I made a few up and fish
them, but I had trouble with durability. 
I made some modifications and here is what I came up with.

 

Thread:  white  

Hook:  Size 10 streamer fly hook. I have been using a Mustad 9674

Tail: White Marabou

Eyes: Med bead chain eyes

Body:  Back 2/3 of fly is Sulky holoshimmer thread in sliver, 6001, I keep this stuff loaded on a old spool to place in a bobbin for easy application. 

Body: Front 1/3 of fly is made from Sulky Holoshimmer thread in Xmas Red, 6014, I keep this stuff loaded on a old spool to place in a bobbin for easy application. 

Body Shell:  Loon outdoors UV knot sense

 

Place hook in the vise and lay down a good thread base

Tie in bead chain eyes, leave room to whip finish and epoxy.

Tie in tail at about barb length, I like the tail to be about the length of the total body, I also like to keep the tail squared off by cutting it to length.

I try to keep the body taper smooth on this fly.  I do this by making sure the tail tag extends to the eyes of the fly and is bound down smoothly with the white thread.

Whip finish and cut off white thread

Next I switch to the silver Sulky Holoshimmer thread, and wrap the sliver thread up and down the body to make a nice thick and smooth body.

Whip finish the silver thread and cut off

Next I switch to the red Sulky Holoshimmer thread, and give the fly a nice red color and head, remembering to crisscross over the bead chain eyes and to have some overlap back over the sliver thread.   

Whip finish red thread.

Lastly I apply a coat of knot sense covering the eyes, and body, doing the best I can to keep it out of the tail. Cure
the epoxy using sun light or UV light

 

Enjoy!

Bryan

[Jen Nayfly]

Thanks Bryan, I'll have to check my local embroidery stores for the thread. Nice fly!