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The WD40 was originally designed by Mark Engler. Word on the street says that he designed this while working in a fly shop in the west. He made a pattern that was relatively easy to tie, and worked well in small sizes, which was what was needed on these small fly streams. This fly became so popular at his local fly shop, that he could not keep up with the demand of tying it. So the shop quickly turned to others to tie this fly, and instantly the fly became a world wide success, stocked in all fly shops in the United States, and later the world. So this fly originally uses Wood Duck (the W.D. part of the name). However, wood duck is very expensive for a small amount of it. Also I find that the pattern on it is finer, and softer than Mallard Flank. So I use the less expensive and easier to find mallard flank for this fly. Not only is it more readily available and less expensive than wood duck, it also comes in a wider range of colors. For this specific fly I used the one died to look like wood duck, however you can find this in gray, brown, olive, yellow, exc. The list goes on and on. These range of colors allow you to tie this fly in many colors to mimic your local bug species. So maybe I should call the fly the MF40? LOL So as always I am listing the materials I used on this fly. Hook: Daiichi 1130 in size 18 Thread: Veevus 10/0 in brown Tail/wingcase: Wood Duck Gold Mallard Flank Ribbing: Small/Gold Ultra Wire Dubbing: Brown Hareline Rabbit Dubbing Head Cement: Hard as hull