The Joy of Fly Tying: Rubber Leg Spider

I teach a lot of Beginning Fly Tying classes through various Community Education departments in my area. For some reason, when I first started to offer these classes, I called them The Joy of Fly Tying. I don't know if all of my students have actually found fly tying to be joy-filled, but I do try to make it fun, and I have never had a student stand up during class, throw their bobbin at me, and storm out, so that's a good sign.

In my classes, which typically last for three weeks, I teach my students how to tie 9 different flies. We start with the easiest, and then work our way up to the more difficult, adding new techniques along the way. It can be a lot of info for a new fly tyer to digest, so I thought I should post some video tutorials of all the flies we tie in class, so my students, or anybody, can watch and relearn anything they might have forgotten.

A gaggle of rubber legged spiders. Eeek.

So, here we are at the first of 9 videos in my Joy of Fly Tying series. The first fly is a rubber-legged spider, which I think is one of the easiest flies to learn, and a good jumping off point into the world of fly tying. Whether you are one of my past students, or just happened upon this post by chance, I hope you enjoy the video...

Rubber Legged Spider Pattern Recipe

Hook: Mustad 33903 size 10
Thread: 6/0 in whatever color you like
Body: Foam spider shaped body in whatever color you like
Legs: 2 sets of rubber legs on each side of body.