 |
June 2003
by Rich Johnson
Fly of the Month: MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat)
Comments: The MRE was a feature article in the Summer 2001 issue of Fly Tyer magazine. Bob Christensen, the originator and author, developed this fly for the small mountain streams in New Mexico where he lives. I subscribe to Fly Tyer, and read that issue. But I passed over the MRE - who knows why; brain gas I guess.
Quick forward to early winter 2002: While at one of our first tying clinics Valesa Linnean starts telling me about this killer grayling fly she used this past season. Being the trusting person that she is, Valesa showed me the bead-head MRE. Cool pattern, I said; how did you come up it? Valesa told me where she'd seen it and elaborated on how she thought it would be a great pattern for graying, but she had tied it in a size 12 and found the bead-head extremely effective all summer long.
Thank goodness for "new to the sport" fly tyers. If it weren't for Valesa I wouldn't have a half-dozen MRE's in my box waiting for June and my first trip for grayling.
The pattern shown in the tying sequence is the bead-head version. The original MRE is shown as the last image. As always, we've tweaked the pattern a touch to meet the needs of our Alaskan waters. (Bob's original materials are listed in parentheses and are discussed within each step.)
|
 |
Hook: Curved shank Scud/Pupa hook, size 12 - 16
(Dai-Riki #135; TMC 2457; Daiichi 1250)
Thread: Olive 6/0
Weight: Brass or Copper Bead (optional)
Body: Pheasant tail fibers (Olive tying thread)
Rib: (Single turkey wing fiber)
Wing: Bleached elk hair (Bleached Coastal deer hair)
Thorax: Peacock herl
Head: Orange 6/0 thread
|
 |
1) Slip an appropriately sized bead on the hook. (Bob Christensen fished size 16's and therefore uses a 3/32-inch bead. I'm tying on #12 hook and using a 1/8-inch bead. I'm also using copper, which I prefer, instead of the brass called for in the original pattern.) |
 |
2) Start your thread behind the bead and wrap enough of a base to lock the bead in place and create a solid under body. Notice that I've wrapped thread well down on the bend. |
 |
3) Tie in the peasant tail fibers by the tips and bring the thread up the body to just in front of the hook point. (Bob uses the olive thread as the body and ties in a single fiber from a natural turkey wing at this point.) |
 |
4) Wrap the pheasant fibers forward, Tie off and trim the excess. (Bob spiral wraps the turkey fiber as a rib, creating a buggy, segmented abdomen.)
|
 |
5) Cut, clean, and stack a small bunch of bleached coastal deer, or elk hair. (Bob advised no more than 20 hairs and I tried to stay very close to that on my version.) Tie down the hair as a short wing over the top of the fly. The fibers should not extend much past the bend of the hook.
|
 |
6) Tie in a couple of peacock herls and wrap them as a thorax, tie off and trim the excess. At this point you want to tie off the olive thread just behind the bead with a couple of half hitches and cut it off.
|
 |
7) Attach the orange tying thread behind the bead wrapping an orange band between the bead and the thorax. Half hitch, whip finish and trim the thread.
|
 |
8) Bob Christensen's original MRE was not a bead-head. He simply wrapped a large head of orange thread in front of the thorax. Why orange? Well, Bob's observation is that orange thread turns reddish when wet, and it's the red color that he wants on the pattern. |