Stewart's Black Spider

[Buck Henry]

Stewart's Black Spider

Another century old British soft hackle fly that is simple to tie and deadly to fish.

Hook: Diachii 1530 size 16
Thread / Body: Pearsall's Silk in Black
Hackle: Starling body feather

[Gatorbyte]

What does this pattern mimic? A midge? Best part is I have all of the materials.

[Buck Henry]

Originally Posted by Gatorbyte

What does this pattern mimic? A midge? Best part is I have all of the materials.

I have borrowed the below from one of my favorite UK soft hackle sites to answer your question:

We could spend, and perhaps waste, an awful lot of time discussing what soft hackle flies represent. Some say that the partridge and orange is taken for an adult stone fly or the aquatic nymph of this and other species such as the up-wings. Others assert that the orange colour mimics a developing midge pupa. Snipe and purple is frequently reported to imitate the nymph or adult of a fly called the iron blue. Sadly, the iron blue is in serious decline; we rarely see it on our northern streams today. The snipe and purple, however continues to catch fish wherever it is employed. When the waterhen bloa is awash in the surface film, its straggly body and soft hackle writhe gently. It’s colour, size and behaviour suggest a member of the olive family struggling to hatch or indeed drowning in the process. It still takes fish when not a single fly is to be seen on the water.

After many years of careful research, scientific experimentation and empirical research we can however reveal the truth. Trout and grayling mistake these artificial flies for – FOOD.

So I guess the answer is that it mimics a little black bug!

[SlowStreamer]

Buck,

no need for a thorax, or are the Starling body feathers stiff enough so they won't lay flat?

[Buck Henry]

Originally Posted by SlowStreamer

Buck,

no need for a thorax, or are the Starling body feathers stiff enough so they won't lay flat?

Good question Sammy. From what I gather, putting a thorax on soft hackle flys is kind of up to the tier. Some folks do and some folks don't. I personally have moved away from dubbing a thorax on most of my SH patterns and they seem to work just as fine without one. Like I said, pretty much a matter of preference I think.