Body: White or pearl Cactus Chenille

Gills: Red/orange crystal chenille or Estaz

Head: White Danville flat waxed nylon – Unwind the twist of the thread so it is flattened and wind on a tapered head.

Cement: Loctite Super Glue with brush applicator

This pattern was developed for those days when the water is crystal clear and the opaque or flashy patterns flies in our boxes don’t work well. With the materials and tying method described this fly seems to almost disappear in the water. The fly was given its name because of this almost transparent appearance.

The wing and belly materials are just stiff enough to keep the body from wrapping around the hook bend.

After wrapping a thread base over the shank of the hook tie in the hourglass eyes at a point about a third of the way back from the eye of the hook and opposite from the point so the fly will ride hook-point-up. The paint on these eyes is very durable.

Wrap the thread back to the bend of the hook and tie in a strand of medium or large white or pearl Cactus Chenille. Wind the chenille forward to a point about an eighth of an inch short of the hourglass eyes. Stroke the material back as you wrap and tie the material off and cut. This material will act as the body and also give the appearance of pectoral fins.

Tie in the red or red/orange crystal chenille or Estaz gills, wind forward to the base of the hourglass eyes and tie it off.

Move the thread to a point just in front of the hourglass eyes and tie in a small bunch of pale blue synthetic hair. Cut the butts to a taper ending at the hook eye and tie down. Tie a small bunch of white synthetic hair in over the blue material and repeat the process. The belly should be tied in against the hourglass eyes to that it flares almost at a right angle.

Rotate the head of the vise so the hook point is up. If a standard vise is used, remove the fly and reinsert it with the hood-point-up. Tie in a small bunch of pale blue synthetic hair and taper the butts as it was done for the belly. Tie in a very small bunch of chartreuse synthetic hair (about half the amount of the other materials), taper and tie down. Tie in a small bunch of olive synthetic hair over the other wing materials and tie in as described.

Form a tapered fly head and whip finish and cut the tying thread.

Remove the fly from the vise and stroke the wing material back so that it is evenly distributed on either side of the hook bend. Pull the belly material back and pinch the wing and belly material together behind the hook bend. Replace the fly in the vise and hold the wing and belly material together behind the hook bend as you wind thread over the material tying it together behind the hook bend. This is the tricky part! The point at which the wing/belly tie is made should be close enough to the hook bend so the wing material will not flip over the hook point and far enough so the body will have a taper. A little fiddling with the material will probably be necessary.

The hardest part of the whole tying process is applying a whip finish to the wraps tying the wing and belly together. It is kind of like tying a parachute hackle without a gallows tool. Make sure that enough material is would on the material and remove the fly from the vise and holding one end of the wraps with one hand, whip finish with the other hand then tighten.

Apply Loctite Super Glue to the wing/belly wraps and to the head of the fly. Don’t worry if some of the super glue gets into the synthetic hair. This type of super glue is sold at fabric stores and I was told that it holds fabric together nicely.

The final step is to taper the back of the wing material. The original version of this fly had the back of the wing/belly cut in a "V" to represent a forked tail but it came together when fished so this process was eliminated.