Bottom Flies

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Black Dredger

The Black Dredger along with Purple and Chartreuse Dredgers are good lures to use when it's the "dog days of summer' and bass are hugging the bottom in deep water.

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Materials List

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Hook	Mustad Salmon Wet	Size 4
Thread	Danville's Flat Waxed Nylon	Red
Tail	Magnum Zonker Strip	Black
Body	Flashabou	Silver
Collar	Flashabou	Silver
Skirt	Hen Neck Feather	Black
Legs	Live Rubber	Yellow
Eyes	Bead Chain Eyes	Large - Silver
Head	Chenille	Fine - Black

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Tying Notes

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The Black Dredger is almost four inches long. Make your dredgers what ever length you want but no shorter than three inches.

I use Whiting Hen Neck feathers for hackle collars and skirts because it's good stuff but you can use any wide and webby hackle available to you.

Use a strong thread like Flat Waxed Nylon because you're going to torque down on the rabbit strip when you tie it in.

Rubber legs are a good addition to any warmwater fly that will accomodate them. I use live rubber legging material. Use whatever suits you.

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Angling Tips

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The Dredger can be fished anywhere in the water column depending on the line, leader, and speed of retrieve employed.

It's an excellent swimming fly but I generally fish it close to or on the bottom.

I fish the Dredger on both floating and sinking lines. I use at least a nine-foot tapered leader on a floating line and a four-foot level leader on the sink tip.

Fish the Dredger slowly with short strips followed by brief pauses. The hits are generally light so line control is important.

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Tying Instructions

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Step 1

Clamp the hook in the vice and crimp the barb. Start the thread at the wire return on the salmon hook and lay down a thread base from there to the hook bend and back.

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Step 2

Tie in the bead chain eyes directly behind the wire return with figure-eight wraps.

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Step 3

Add a drop or two of Zap-A-Gap and take several more figure-eight wraps.

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Step 4

Cut a three inch piece of zonker strip for the tail..

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Step 5

Butt the front of the zonker strip against the base of the eyes and catch it with a couple tight turns of Thread.

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Step 6

Keep the zonker strip on top of the hook and bind it down with very tight thread wraps from the eyes to the hook bend and back.

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Step 7

Select fifteen or so strands of silver Flashabou and tie them in directly behind the eyes with about one and one-half inches of the strands protruding from the front of the fly.

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Step 8

Gather the Flashabou strands and wrap them to the base of the tail and back to the eyes to from the body.

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Step 9

Pull the strands forward as shown and take a couple of tight thread wraps to bind them down.

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Step 10

Gather and combine the short Flashabou strands with the long strands and pull them back toward the rear of the fly.

Bind them down with several wraps of thread leaving about one-eighth inch of space as shown for the skirt and legs.

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Step 11

To make the collar trim the Flashabou strands so that they reach the bend of the hook.

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Step 12

This is the way the collar should look after it's been trimmed. Notice where the thread hangs for the next step.

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Step 13

Select a wide and webby hen neck feather and prepare it for tying in by removing the fluff from the base of the stem, stroking back the barbs, and making a tie in tip.

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Step 14

Tie in the feather by the tip with the concave side of the feather facing the hook.

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Step 15

Wrap the feather forward "wet fly style" and tie off. You may need to use more than one feather.

Leave about one-sixteenth inch of space for the legs,

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Step 16

Tie in an eight inch piece of fine chenille as shown in the photo

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Step 17

Make the legs by dividing a six inch piece of rubber leg material into two equal pieces. Center one piece on the far side of the hook and tie it in with a couple wraps of thread.

Tie in the other piece of leg material on the near side of the hook with a couple of thread wraps and then move the thread to the front of the hook eye.

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Step 18

To finish the head take one wrap of chenille behind the legs followed by one wrap between the legs and one wrap in front of them.

Then proceed to build up the head by making several figure-eight wraps of chenille around the eyes.

Tie off the chennile when the eyes are completely surrounded with chenille as shown in the photo. Remove the excess chenille.

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Step 19

Form a neat thread head and tie off with two half-hitches and remove the thread.

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Step 20

Paint the head with a couple coats of head cement. I use "Hard As Nails" nail polish. The best head cement around.

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Step 21

Your Black Dredger is ready to dredge up some big bass.

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