Humpies are a series of bushy dry flies popularized in Wyoming, supposedly a variant of sorts of the Tied-Down Caddis. In the west, cutthroats, unlike rainbows or browns, are non-selective surface feeders and respond well to these flies. That fact, coupled with the easy-to-see characteristics of this high floater make it very popular with western cutt guides.

I admit that the Humpy is not a favorite of mine for surface action. I suppose that this is due to the nature of the fish that I angle to-wild brown trout. I will say that this pattern in great for "dry-dropper" style nymph fishing and is an absolute perfect mountain native brookie dry fly.

I was asked to do a tutorial for this pattern, I assume because it is a bit of a bear to tie. Well, not really but it is problematic for most tiers. I do tie mine a bit differently than most. Most tiers make the wings and hump out of the same clump of hair. I never liked doing that as it screwed with my entrenched wing-tail-body-hackle mantra for tying dries. I also had issues with the wing length at the end of it all. As I will show you, the method of tying I demonstrate will allow you to end up with a well proportioned fly.

MATERIALS

Hook: Mustad R50 or similar OR 2XL dry fly hook (#8-#12)

Thread: Orange 6/0

Wing: Fine Bleached Elk Hair

Tail: Black Bear

Hump: Fine Bleached Elk Hair

Body: Orange 6/0

Hackle: Mixed Brown and Grizzly

Place the debarbed hook firmly in your vise. Shown is a standard length dry fly hook; you may choose to use a 2XL dry fly hook like a Mustad 9671.

Start your jam knot behind the eye and lay a thread base to the midpoint of the shank, return the thread to the 1/3 point of the shank.

Select a patch of fine bleached elk hair.

Remove a healthy bundle by snipping it close to the hide.

Grasping the bundle by the tips, comb out the underfur and shorts.

Place the hair, tips first, into a stacker. Tap the stacker firmly on your bench a number of times to even the tips.

Remove the base so that the exposed tips are facing the hook eye.

Measure the tips to be equal to the overall hook length.

Advance the measured bundle forward to the thread location.

With one loose wrap to contain the hair, and two firm wraps to tighten it, secure the bundle to the hook. It is fine of the hair spins a bit.

Clip the butt ends close.

Make sure the thread is back up to the 1/3 mark.

Grasp the tips firmly and pull them up and back--hard!

Make a tapered thread dam in front to support the hair erect.

At this point you basically have a Comparadun wing.

Divide the wings into two equal bunches and split them with a series of X-Wraps.

Next, post each wing by wrapping thread around the bases to gather the tips.

For a detailed explanation on basing wings, please see my tutorial on the Dette Coffin Fly

After the wings have been posted, advance the thread to the rear, just above the barb location.

Select a small bunch of quality black bear hair. The hair should be long and without broken tips.

Holding the hair by the tips, pull out the underfur.

Snip away the excess base length of the hair so that it is just a bit longer than your stacker.

Place the hair, tips first, into your stacker and even them up.

Remove the base with the tips facing to the rear!

Measure the hair to be equal in length to the overall hook.

Tie the tail material to the top of the hook. Bind it forward and clip the excess so that they butt-up to the butt ends of the wing material.

Select and stack another bundle of elk hair as before. The density should equal that of the bundle used for the wings. Tips should be facing the rear of the hook.

Snip off the butts squarely.

With the squared ends directly over the seam between the wing and tail material catch-in the hair on top of the hook. Keep hold of the hair so that it does not spin around the hook.

Bind the hair back, keeping it on top of the hook, to the tail. NO GAPS please between the tail and the elk hair.

Lay an even abdomen of thread over the hair. Notice how I keep the thorax area seperate!

Grasp the tips, gently and slightly twist them to keep them from spreading around the hook , and fold the bundle forward to create the hump. Obviously with a 2XL hook the hump will be longer as will the thorax.

With a few tight thread wraps, secure the front of the hump at the seam between the wing and tail material. Next, pull both the wing and hump material upright to expose the gap between the two. Slip the point of your scissors in that gap and snip away the excess hump material.

Once the excess has been removed, cover the stubs with tight thread wraps.

Select a grizzly and a brown hackle or saddle whose barbs are equal to the length of the shank of the hook.

Expose the stem just above where the webbing ceases and remove the feather below that area. Leave yourself a very small stub of exposed stem on each feather.

Move the thread forward to one eye length behind the hook eye and catch in the hackles so that the undersides are facing up.

Crease the hackles so that they stand perpendicular to the hook shank.

Begin wrapping one of the hackle rearward, making sure that the concavity of the barbs is oriented forward.

When you get to the hump, reverse direction back to the eye. Secure once you rear the rear edge of what will be the head.

Repeat the process with the next hackle, taking it back to the hump. This time, the last wrap in that direction goes fully behind all the preceding wraps.

Advance it forward. Again, the last wrap goes forward of all preceding wraps. Pull back the hackle barbs and secure the last hackle wrap. Clip the excess.

Keeping the barbs pulled back, build a neat, small head.

Whip finish and clip. Notice that I have no "stuff" trapped in the head wraps. Cement the head for durability.

Dress your fly by fluffing the hackle barbs back into place.

A completed Orange Humpy!