Rusty Spinner

A dry fly, tied #14–20, a summer pattern. It is tied against 7 named insects in this book — May–September.

A hackleless spent-wing dry tied on a standard dry-fly hook in sizes 14–20 with rust 8/0 thread. Two pale microfibbets splay wide for the tail, the body is rusty-brown superfine dubbing, and the wings are clear or white poly yarn set spent; nothing holds it up but the wings and the surface. The logic is simple: most mayfly spinners end up rust-coloured with clear flat wings, so at the right size this one covers all of them. It is tied here against the Sulphur, Ephemerella dorothea and invaria, from May to July at 52 to 68 degrees; the Pale Morning Dun, Ephemerella excrucians, in June and July at 50 to 65; and the Isonychia or Slate Drake, Isonychia bicolor, from June to September at 55 to 70. A summer fly for trout, and the one that covers the last hour of light.

#14–20Hook size
dry flyType
SummerSeason
7Hatches matched

What it looks like

A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 5 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.

A dead mayfly. The wings are flat on the surface rather than up, and that flat cross is what a trout sees against the sky at the end of a spinner fall — which is why a spinner with an upright wing gets refused. Drawn at #18 — 6.0 mm of shank and 3.0 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.

The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 14 will differ a little.

What it imitates

Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.

It is also tagged for mayflies generally.

Tying recipe

In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook	Standard dry-fly hook, sizes 14–20
Thread	Rust 8/0
Tail	Two pale microfibbets, splayed wide
Body	Rusty-brown superfine dubbing
Wings	Clear or white poly yarn, spent
Hackle	None

When to fish it

The universal spinner. Most mayfly spinners are rust-coloured with clear flat wings, and this covers all of them at the right size.

A summer pattern. The insects it matches are active may–september, in water from 50°F to 74°F.

Target species

Trout

Rivers it fishes well

Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

Open the trout map →Every trout stream near you, coloured by today's water temperature.