Midnight Cowboy Fly Tying Instructions

Midnight Cowboy is a black chenille with purple and red reflective speckles. The material is used in numerous fly patterns and is especially popular among Pyramid Lake anglers. Pyramid Lake is an alkaline lake in the high desert of northern Nevada. Midnight cowboy is a common material used on woolly bugger and beetle flies for the large Lahontan cutthroat trout that inhabit the lake. Midnight Cowboy is effective on any pattern that calls for dark colored chenille.

Things You'll Need

  • Vise
  • Heavy scud hook #6-10
  • 3/0 black thread
  • Black marabou
  • Midnight cowboy chenille
  • Black 2 mm foam
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Instructions

    • 1

      Insert the hook in the jaws of the vise and clamp them on the lower section of the bend. Start the thread at the eye of the hook and wrap it to the hook bend. Cover the entire hook shank with thread to prevent the foam from slipping.

    • 2

      Cut a clump of marabou from a feather and measure the marabou to match the length of the hook shank. Hold the marabou on top of the hook bend and make five tight thread wraps to secure it in place. Wrap the thread down the hook shank to cover the base of the marabou fibers. Return the thread to the hook bend.

    • 3

      Cut a three-quarter-inch strip of black foam from a foam sheet. Hold the strip on top of the hook with one end at the hook bend and the opposite end extending past the hook bend. Wrap the thread around the foam and the hook shank to compress the foam on the hook. Make tight wraps up and down the shank until the foam is completely covered. Return the thread to the hook bend.

    • 4

      Cut a 1-foot section of Midnight Cowboy from the spool of chenille. Hold one end of the chenille on the hook bend and make five tight wraps to secure it in place. Wrap the thread to the eye of the hook.

    • 5

      Wrap the chenille down the hook shank and stop at the eye of the hook. Make consecutive turns to cover the entire shank with the chenille. Make five tight thread wraps to secure the chenille and cut the excess flush to the hook shank.

    • 6

      Grab the section of foam extending past the hook bend. Pull the foam over the back of the chenille. Maintain slight pressure on the foam and make ten tight thread wraps to secure it at the eye of the hook. Trim the base of the foam to leave a small tag extending over the eye of the hook. Use a whip finishing tool to tie off the thread and cut flush to the hook with scissors.