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/ bead / Black / floss / Red / Tinsel / Turkey / Yellow /

Banksian MoJo

 
tied by Ronn Lucas
Material List: This is the last of my recent flies I chose to post. The fly is called Banksian MoJo. The wing and throat are Banksian Cockatoo under tail coverts which were given to me by Bob MacDonald. Some of the other feathers were given to me by other friends Paul Rossman, Bud Guidry and John McLain. Thanks Gents!!! The fly wouldn't have been as good without any single element.

A little about the fly and why I did what I did. First, I ALWAYS try to use as much as I possibly can of the major feathers which in this case is the wing. I didn't want to cover any more of the large feathers than absolutely necessary. The final bar of colour is the light yellow and it is right next to where the feather fluff starts. This meant that there was a huge area of fluff that would add nothing good to the fly. So what to do? I looked through a lot of feathers and the only ones that had the shape needed and complementary colours were a pair of Ocelated Turkey. It was a shame to have to cover as much of the Turkey feathers as I had to but on balance, I thought the trade off a good one. The sides were also a compromise of size and length but I think are about right and don't cover too much of the Banksian.

The tail is three toppings with two dyed....one a peachy colour and the other a russet orange and are veiled with IC and little Black feathers from a Red Bishop. The veil is a topping, IC and Red Bishop. The glass bead was the only one out of over a hundred that would possibly work with these feathers/colours. I have others that were close but this one seems made and destined to be used with this pair of Banksian feathers. To get the wing to lay close to the body, I cut a slot in the top of the bead so the edge of the wing rests in it without too much of a pucker but more importantly, no open spaces which I try not to have. This is what is called a bicone bead which means it is larger in the center. I don't care for bicones too much but have a few that are just too great looking to have passed up.

Finally, the fly is rather large at about 4 1/4" long. I used John Mc's Japanese floss and had a length that when tied in, had the end laying on the floor. AND, it wasn't long enough to make a single pass on the body!!!!!! I tie in my floss are the rear and make a single pass on virtually all of my flies because most of my flies are so large compared to what most folks tie. So, that is just the habit I have gotten into. You do have to watch out that you don't expose the underbody this way but the end result looks good.

One last thing. When I tie one of these flies........I mean a major fly......not so much like the others I posted the past few days.......I give a lot of thought as to what I want to end up with and how to get there. This was a fairly quick one but even so, I had the feathers, hook and bead selected and laying on my bench for a few months. Over time I selected and thought of the rest of the materials I would use on the fly. I pretie the fly many times in my mind. The actual tying time is only a couple hours but countless ones planning. Before starting to tie, I lay out the materials and sketch out the body with all of the tinsels, body veils and floss colours. All of this planning almost avoids those little annoying times when you might be ready to finish a fly and find you don't have a certain material needed to do what you had thought you could do. This way nothing is too short or not to be found when you need the part. Your tying flows along without too many speed bumps along the way. Some things for you younger less experienced tyers to keep in mind as you learn the craft.
Tying Instructions: ZZZZZZ