How To Tie The Update Gotcha Fly

A note from the Author and Fishwest Ambassador Spencer:

“I was not fortunate enough to have the disposable income OR free time to make the trip. Especially with 4 kids under the age of 8 there was no way I was going to even try to convince my wife to send me fishing in the Bahamas for a week. But I was fortunate enough to be able to send a handful of flies with the hope that I’d get some fish pictures and awesome stories in return.  One of the patterns I sent down was a slightly modified Gotcha pattern.  I wanted to share a step-by-step tutorial on how to tie the update Gotcha Fly.”

Bonefish, Tarpon and Permit… Oh my!

We figure with our recent post about our up and coming trip to Xcalak, Mexico November 7th-14th, 202, we’d feature the amazing “Gotcha Fly”. In this write up you’ll learn how to tie the update gotcha fly so you can get yourself a couple Bonefish on this trip.

By the way, we still have spots available for this trip. What better way to celebrate the pandemic end than an epic trip to Mexico that not only give you the chance to catch Bonefish, but Tarpon and Permit as well. Thank you Spence for the great write up/how-to and thanks for joining us on our last South Andros trip.

Material List:

• Hook: Size 2-6 hook
• Weight: Hareline Beach Chain Eyes – Large (Black)
• Thread: Veevus 8/0 – Pink
• Wing: Arctic Fox – White
• Spawn Sack: Hareline STS Trllobal – Fl. She’ll Pink
• Body: Hareline Diamond Braid Pearl
• Legs: Hareline – Crazy legs Pearl / Fl. Orange tipped
• Flash: Hareline Krystal Flash – Bonefish Pink

Step 1: Place your hook in the vise and start your thread behind the eye of the hook.

Step 2: Attach Large bead chain eyes to the top of your hook. To do this I recommend doing a pair of crossing wraps to loosely set the eyes in place.

Step 3: I follow up with 4 or five diagonal wraps one way and then repeat the other direction. Then I do a couple tight wraps with the thread staying above the hook but beneath the eyes.

Step 4: Create a smooth thread base back to the curve of the hook and then grab a small (think toothpick thickness) amount of Trllobal dubbing and loosely align the fibers.

Step 5: Do a couple of tight wraps of thread at the mid point of the dubbing right at the beginning of the hook curve. This will have half the fibers pointing out back and half pointing towards the eye of the hook.

Step 6: Fold back the front half of the dubbing so that it all points to the rear and tightly tie down the dubbing with a few more wraps of thread.

Step 7: Trim the spawn sack to extend just beyond the back edge curve of the hook.

Step 8: Advance your thread to right behind the bead chain eyes and tie in the pearl braid.

Step 9: Using tight, touching wraps of the braid wind back to the spawn sack and then wind it back to right to the eyes and tie the pearl braid off.

Step 10: Trim the excess and advance your thread to right in front of the bead chain eyes.

Step 11: Rotate your hook point up. Select a decent clump of arctic fox for the wing (roughly pencil sized when grouped together. Measure the arctic fox so that the tips extend about ½ to ¾ the hook length beyond the bend. Cut the arctic fox to give a clean tie in point, and tie it in right in front of the bead chain eyes and make sure to not cover the hook eye.

Step 12: Tie in 2-4 strands of krystal flash on each side of the hook.  Trim the flash so that it extends just beyond the ends of the arctic fox.  Next tie in two sets of orange tipped rubber legs on both sides of the hook.  Be careful to not tie them in so tight that they break and fall off.  Trim them so that they end near the same length as the arctic fox wing.

Step 13: Clean up the head of the fly and whip finish.  Use a UV resin or head cement if you want to add additional durability to the fly.

Step 14: Next step is to GO FISHING.  Enjoy!

For more how-to’s you can click here and go directly to our blogs on other fly patterns, here.