A few years ago I was stalking arctic char in a river way up north, and during the morning I took several good chars on a small Blue Wing Olive emerger, but as the day advanced, all the fish seem to lose interest in my fly although they kept rising. I knew I had to change my fly, and I must have gone through at least half a dozen flies before I noticed a large unidentified dun fly past me. In the clear and sunny weather, it reflected an intense light mustard’ish color, and soon I was digging thorough in my flyboxes to see if I had anything that could resemble its appearance; both in color and size.
In my third and final box, that was filled with all kinds of flies that had been tied spontaneously and randomly throughout the years, but was now nearly forgotten and had been degraded to my small dirty box; that was stored at the bottom of my bag, I found the perfect imitation: A Ginger Dun tied on a hook size 14, with some brightly colored wings made from hen hackle points and a sparse hackle. I was quick to tie it on to the tippet of my leader before I presented it to one of the rising chars closest to me, and on the very first cast it rose and swallowed the fly without hesitation, throughout the afternoon I caught five chars; three of them over one kilogram. Since then, the Ginger Dun has always been a part of my primary dryfly box, and granted me many good experiences and unforgettable memories under the right conditions; warm and sunny weather, or in particular when the Heptagenia sulphura duns are sailing on the surface. The following pattern has remained almost without changes from the original of that day.
The Ginger Dun
Hook: Standard dry fly hook size 12 to 16 Thread: Yellow, Light Cahill or Golden Olive Wings: Hen hackle points dyed light dun Tail: Coq de Leon in the color Ginger Specled Flor de Escoba Body: Turkey biot dyed amber Hackle: Indian or Chinese rooster hackle dyed Ginger Thorax: Fly-Rite #36 Ginger Creme
Following is the step-by-step on how I tie my Ginger Dun; a must-have for any arctic fly angler. Hackle might be tied more sparse than what is exposed in this example, and could even be trimmed on the underside.
Step 1: The Hook
Secure the hook in your vice. For this tutorial I use a Tiemco TMC size 12, but a size 14 I would also encourage for this pattern.
Step 2: The Thread
Tie on the thread, either a yellow, Light cahill or golden olive. For this tutorial I use a 8/0 yellow thread.
Step 3a: The Wing
Pick out two hen hackle feathers dyed light dun, then measure them to the right length and trim off the waste fibers to make it easier to tie them in correctly and also increase the security. Then keep the stem parallel to the hook shank while holding them within your left thumb and index finger while securing them in with a few tight wraps of thread.
Step 3b: The Wing
Trim off the waste ends so they only reach about half the length of the body.
Step 4: The Tail
After tying down the waste ends of the wing, take four to six fibers of naturally ginger colored Coq de Leon and tie in as a tail.
Step 5: The Biot
Pick out a turkey biot dyed in a amber color and reduce the width at the bottom end using your scissors. Tie in on your far side with the translucent side facing upward.
Step 6: The Underbody
Wrap your thread in adjacent turns up toward the joint between the abdomen and thorax, and slightly taper the body to your liking.
Step 7: Wrap the body
For durability I would encourage covering the underbody with a thin coat of superglue, or other adhesive, before carefully wrapping the biot in equal turns, making a beautiful segmented abdomen.
Step 8: The Hackle
Find a suiting Chinese or Indian rooster hackle dyed ginger and tie in on top of the hook shank; making the tip go through between the hackle points that makes up the wing, and secure the hackle in from of the wings as well.
Step 9a: The Thorax
Neatly dub the waxed thread with Fly-Rite #36 Ginger Cream and create a thorax. The dubbing should be so neat that you now can make the crossing turns to separate the wings.
Step 9b: The Thorax
The fly seen from above.
Step 10: Wrap The Hackle
Wrap the hackle; six turns at most. Secure with two tight wraps of thread.
Step 11: Secure The Hackle
Fold the waste end of the hackle stem backward and make a small head with tight wraps of thread.
Step 12: Finish The Fly
Make a whip finish to secure the whole fly and trim off the thread, and varnish the head. your fly is now done. Tight lines!
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All photos are taken by me and shall not be used without permission.