How to Make the Northern Magic Fishing Fly

The next pattern is called the Northern Magic. I found this fly several years ago when I was fishing at Walls in Lake Lodge in Northern Saskatchewan. My guide and ship crew Marty said this was his goal to fly. He’s shorelines fly when nothing else would work is this fly will catch fish. When I look at the fly, I had my doubts. But he proved me wrong the very first day and he proved me wrong the rest of the week because every time he uses this fly it caught a fish. We have some days during the week when the fishing was temperamental. The fish would follow but they wouldn’t take, but if we needed a fish you put this fly on and it caught fish.

Its very simple pattern and I wonder if you walk into the fly shop and so the fly whether you need, buy it. But I guarantee you it works, a tide some for a customer this past summer, he said I ask and which fly to use this. I want you go two flies he called it. He said it works all the time. So I think it’s proved itself and ship certainly as use it for long time. He ties it in black and red and black and white but it seems the favor of the black and the red. And it’s a very easy pattern to do.

We’ll begin with some Gudebrod G thread, again, a size one at CS 52 Partridge Hook. Put the thread base down. I’m using some thumbs and fly fiber. You can use fish hair, any number of materials or the synthetic of this type. Floro-fiber, there’s a whole bunch of them on the market. It’s a synthetic material. It’s kind of wavy, super hairs another one but anyway floro-fiber work—any that type of material. It can be tied 6 to 8 inches long. Tie it on. Put a little head cement on the material and one thing about this fly you can tie it and very, very quickly. Bring the thread back to about, just short of the midpoint of the hook. Take a clamp of bucktail and I would recommend that you use and this is a good place to use a wavy bucktail rather than the real straight hair that most people prefer. For this type of fly the wavy hair is a good way to go and the same fly for salt water applications. I’m going to comb out, get some of those short hairs out of there.

Now, bring it up tie on the far side of the hook. First measure. bring the bucktail about an inch, inch and a half as to bend of the hook. Cut this with a slight angle. Cut the hair to slight angle, always head cement bucktail before you tie it in. Lay it on the far side, get several wraps. Wrap it on and then push it around and flat it out from the far side. Then on the near side same thing, take about the same quantity of hair. But one thing when you’re working with bucktail, its best to use and this one is an exception to the rule but most of the time you want to cut the hair from here to the tip. Avoid the hair down in this area. It tends to be too coarse and will flare too much. So to always do in the upper 2/3, this tail is pretty good even down there but many of them are not. They’re only good to about here and then you—this part really doesn’t have a lot of use.

Comb it out again. But it seems to be too many short hairs and there you can wind the tips of my hand and it isn’t necessary that it looks like a paint brush, measure, cut, head cement. Just lay it right in. Flatten that up. Make sure it colors all the way around. I’m going to cut off that little extra material right there.

Now bring your thread forward, make another old thread base in front of that first clamp of hair. Make another clamp of black bucktail. I don’t think I would use this particular tail to tie a streamer. Or I want to layer the hair and held it to a various length because it’s a little bit too wavy but for this application it’s just great. Same thing, measure. Make that—bring those tips back about to the tips that are all ready on, I already fastened under the hook. Cut it on angle, apply more head cement right there on the side, push it around, flat down and more on this side.

It’s a good idea if you’re working with hair or whether it be a bucktail or squirrel or deer hair, ox hair etcetera that you use a serrated scissor when you’re doing this application. The hair just—it cuts the hair so much easier than a pair of scissors that don’t have a serration. Some of the scissors that are available today are double serrated. Each blade is serrated. Most have single serration or serration only one blade. Same thing again, tie it on, position it that thread or that head cement soak nicely into the—okay.

All right and the very last step, just take a little bit of micro eye chenille. Strip away the chenille portion until the core is exposed. Tie that underneath, tie that down. Put a fair amount of thread pressure on this whole area. Wrap that forward, tie off and build the head. Fill up your head a little bit more, add a couple of strands there, they’re now cooperating. Cut those out of there and do whip finish and we have Northern Magic. This pattern—strip simply a pass it on and strip it back very new speed. This was a type of fly that you can strip. Let it sit and it will sink very slowly. I found one when Chip chose this pattern, then he just did a quick retrieve with—even when those fish only follow the other flies that we were using. It would come right after and take it.