The New Zealand Fly Fishing Forum

Some time back I was having a quiet sandwich and just watching from the shadows and noticed this great big bloody spider scuttling about. Thought that would make a half decent meal, so decided to see if we could replicate it.

My missus won't go near the thing, so I guess it looks pretty realistic.

They look good! And they can be deadly, had a phone call last week from someone needing spiders, he said nothing else was working, chuck a spider out there and wham, the fish were all over them...

Reckon it may be the heat Steve.

I often use a weighted deep sunk spider... works a treat....

I picked up a few flies from a fishing shop in Tokyo. Among them were some spider patterns, tied as parachute dries with very long soft hackles . One used pheasant feathers for the hackle and the other a partridge hackle. I havnt used them but they look realistic and I am sure they will be effective midsummer when the trout are targeting terrestrials.
I had thought that they were a dry copy of an English wet spider pattern but now realise they were a spider insect imitation.

A successful one I made was by using two small polystyrene balls (different sizes) painted black, threaded onto a hook and put in a piece of brown pantyhose. PT legs in the middle finished it off. I think it's the legs that are the trigger in a lot of flies.