Tie the Mirage is very simple, just you have to be careful to use a feather with all the fibers intact otherwise you cannot get the a imitation with the body and the tails perfect. Because the CDC is a precious material, I was wondering how I could use the imperfect feathers to tie the Mirage. I tho View more...Tie the Mirage is very simple, just you have to be careful to use a feather with all the fibers intact otherwise you cannot get the a imitation with the body and the tails perfect. Because the CDC is a precious material, I was wondering how I could use the imperfect feathers to tie the Mirage. I thought that those feathers could be used to realize an imitation able to give the fish the impression of being a nimph, a dun or even a spent. Using the basic idea of the Mirage dressing, which consists in making converge the fibers of the base and the tip of the CDC hackle in a single point on the stem of the hook to create the wings, I placed the feather on the opposite, so that its base, located extended on the bend of the hook, could imitate the body of the fly. To obtain a nymph, I left the fibers of the extended body more puffy, less tense. If I wished that the imitation looked like a dry fly, I just stretched the fibers in order to make thin the body and get up the wings, while, for obtaining the essential imitation of a spent, I divided into two parts the fibers to obtain the wings and I was fixing them with a few ''eight cross'' turns of thread in a horizontal position and perpendicular to the stem of the hook. Not having to worry about the overall integrity of the fibers of the feather and simplicity of assembly, allowed me to build imitations on smaller hooks. A detail of the tying that seems unimportant and instead is very important, concerns to do converge the fibers of tip of the feather with those of the base, bringing them together in a bunch that imitate the wings. After this, the stem of the tip of the feather is deleted and you will get soft wings that do not create problems during the cast of the fly.
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List of materials
Thread: 8/0
Hook grub size 14/16/18/20
Body and wings: A CDC hackle
Steps
Step 1
Take a CDC feather and strain the fibers towards the tip.
Step 2
Tie the feather on a hook grub, so get an extended body.
Step 3
Holding the hackle from the tip, I strain the fibers along the feather quill making them converge with those who exceed from where the extended body is tied.
Step 4
Trim the excess of the feather.
Step 5
Hold up in vertical the fibers of the wings, and tie it with a few ''eight cross'' turns of thread.
Step 6
Tie the head of the fly
Step 7
Trim the fibers in excess from the wings.
