Nondescript Sedge...

... or "NDS" to its friends!

Use a strong tippet in the larger sizes.  Be ready for sudden, violent rises when there is not much going on. 



Use it when you expect to get a bit of drag.  Twitch it on slow or still pools.  It continues working even after the trout have trimmed its wing into a little stump of deer hair, so don't throw them away. 

Last night I was told that you should tie six of these rather than five as folk will want more than one from you! 

The hook sizes can vary from size 8 down to 14 depending on the sedge flies that are about.  In the colour scheme here it seems to represent the Great Red Sedge quite well but it is not an exact match for anything.  It hints at everything instead.  Use pale materials and it makes a good moth for those all nighters in high summer when the scent of sweet rocket fills your nostrils and the air feels heavy with the prospects of good Sport...

Put the hook in the vice masking the point and starting at the bend wind forward a bed of orange thread.  I've used a size 12 hook here and Pearsalls Orange silk - yes the original orange for the Orange Partridge!  Look just use the orange thread you like.

Dub on a fairly generous pinch of cinnamon seal's fur - it's a mucky yellowy olive colour

Wind the body, the seal's fur should be used up just as you reach the end of the body

Rib the body with open spiralled turns of the thread and then continue for four turns to make a bed for the wing

Take a bunch of deer hair and gauge it against the body and bend so the tips are roughly aligned with the hook bend

Swap hands and hold the bunch of deer hair tight, clip off the waste prior to tying the bunch in

Tighten up the turns and make the wing flare a little as you tie it tight next to the body

Trim off the flared waste ends and dab a small spot of varnish on the remaining root ends of the deer hair.  (I use Sally Hanson Hard as Nails.)

Before the varnish has dried wind the thread forward to make a bed for the hackle stalk

Tie in the red hackle ("brown" in America) like this with the concave, dull side of the hackle facing you and, in tying in the hackle stalk, wind a bed of thread ready for the hackle turns.  Leave the thread dangling at the front of the body and wing.

Wind the hackle, six or seven turns on a fly this size, and quickly wind the thread through the hackle to avoid trapping too many fibres.  Then make a whip finish with a somewhat bolder head than you would do for an olive and then varnish the head and clear the eye whilst the varnish is still wet.  I use the hackle point out of the hackle pliers as a pull-through.

It is a quick and easy fly to tie.

Woe Betide the lot of you if I find all the fish I'm after won't eat it anymore because they've already experienced it when you cast and caught them on it before!

Regular Rod