How to tie the Tummel Welder

Time Well Spent April 19, 2023

A great salmon fly for high and coloured water as the wing and hackles flatten in the water, producing an irresistibly sinuous movement.

Materials list for the Tummel Welder

Tube: Fluorescent yellow chartreuse US tube  
Rear body: Mirage tinsel

Rear hackle: Yellow cock tied long

Tail: Orange bucktail with a little orange and pearl midge Krinkle Flash

Front body: Dubbed black seal’s fur

Rib: Oval silver tinsel 

Rear head hackle: Yellow cock

Wing: Orange fox with pearl midge Krinkle Flash  

Front head hackle: Orange cock 
Eyes: Jungle cock  

Head: Red

Step 1. Insert a liner longer than the tube. Burr both ends. Apply tying thread, building a taper at the front. 

Catch in tinsel.

Step 2. Wind overlapping turns to cover one-third of tube.

Step 3. Secure the end of the tinsel and trim waste. Select a long-fibred, dyed-yellow cock hackle and catch it in by its tip in front of the tinsel. Wind on close turns of the hackle. Trim waste.

Step 4. Take a pinch of dyed-yellow bucktail and remove any damaged fibres. Trim the fibres to length then catch them in on top of the tube along with three strands of Krinkle Flash.

Step 5. Fix the yellow bucktail in position with tight thread turns then add a few dyed-orange bucktail fibres over the top, ensuring that the tips of both tail sections are level.

Step 6. Catch in a length of medium-width oval silver tinsel in front of the bucktail then dub on a generous pinch of black seal’s fur using a simple finger-and-thumb twist.

Step 7. Wind the dubbed seal’s fur over the front of the tube to form the front body section. Wind the tinsel over the fur in open, evenly spaced turns before securing the loose end.

Step 8. Add a second yellow hackle directly on to the plastic tube. It should be shorter in fibre than the rear one. Trim a bunch of orange Arctic fox to length and secure it in front of the hackle.

Step 9. Fix a couple of Krinkle Flash strands on top of the wing then select a dyed-orange cock hackle the same fibre-length as the previous yellow one. Catch it in and apply three turns.

Step 10. Secure the hackle with tying thread, then trim off the waste. Take two medium-sized jungle-cock eyes. Strip away the fibres from their base and catch in on either side of the wing.

Step 11. Add further tight turns of black tying thread to lock the hackle and wing in place, then cast off with a whip finish. Finally, add a small head of red tying thread and varnish.