I’ve always been a fan of the spey flies tied by the late Syd Glasso.  Glasso is considered by many to be the father of the steelhead spey fly.  He was probably the first person to design a spey style fly specifically for steelhead, and in doing so, he started a trend that continues to this day.  He may well be one of the most influential fly tiers in North America.  His flies were beautiful and elegant, yet simple in their construction.

Glasso himself died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 77.  He was born at a place called Mud Creek in Washington.  His father ran a fish hatchery so he was brought up fishing.  He eventually went to school at Pacific Lutheran University and became a social studies teacher.  He ended up living in Forks, WA., where he taught and fished the rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.  This is the place he started tying the flies he is famous for.  He also tied full dressed atlantic salmon flies, and at the time of his death, he was considered to be one of the best fly tiers in the world.

The Purple Heron, while not an original Glasso pattern, is a variation of his Orange Heron and is a widely used fly for steelhead in the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes.

Materials

Hook: Up-eye Salmon Hook
Tag: Oval Silver Tinsel
Rib: Flat Silver Tinsel and Oval Silver Tinsel
Body:

• Rear Half: Purple Floss
• Front Half: Purple Dubbing

Body Hackle: Dyed Purple Blue Eared Pheasant; or, Dyed Purple Ring-neck Pheasant Rump Hackle
Throat: Teal Flank
Wing: Four white hackle tips
Head: Black Thread

Start your thread on the hook.  I like the Daiichi Alec Jackson style hooks for this type of fly.

Run the thread back to a point just in front of the hook point.  Tie in some oval silver tinsel

Wrap the tinsel forward to create a small tag.  Tie it off and trim the excess.

Tie in the rib materials.  I am using a multi part rib made up of flat silver tinsel and a piece of oval silver tinsel.  Run the materials the entire length of the hook to avoid lumps.

Tie in some purple floss for the rear half of the body.

Wrap the floss about half way up the hook shank and tie it off.

Select a hackle for the body.  In this case I am using a blue eared pheasant feather (dyed orange).  Ring-neck pheasant rump feathers also make very good spey hackles if you can find them in larger sizes.

Stroke the fibers of the feather back and tie it in by the tip. Clip off the excess.

Spin some purple dubbing on the thread for the front half of the body, then wrap it forward.  Leave enough room for the throat and head of the fly.

Next wrap the flat silver tinsel foreword, tie it off and trim the excess.

Grab the body hackle by the stem and hold it straight up.  Stroke the fibers in the direction of the back of the hook and pinch them so they are fixed in that position.

Now wrap the hackle towards the front of the hook keeping it between the rib.  Tie it off and then clip off the excess stem.

Wrap the oval silver tinsel forward in the opposite direction of the rib and body hackle.  I usually use a dubbing needle when wrapping it through the hackle so I don’t trap any hackle fibers.  This rib will protect the hackle from breaking while you are fishing with the fly.  Tie it off, and trim the excess.

Select a Teal feather (or similarly marked feather) for the throat and strip off one side of the feather as shown.

Tie the hackle in by the tip and wrap it at the front of the fly.

Next select four white hackles for the wing of the fly.  I have found that the best type of hackles for the wings on this type of fly come from inexpensive Indian Cock necks.

Cut off the tips of the hackles so that once they’re tied in, they will form a wing extending slightly past the end of the body but not passed the bend of the hook.  Strip off about 1/8″ (~3mm) of hackle fibers from the stem of the feathers and flatten the stems lightly with a pair of flat blade tweezers or pliers.  This will make them sit better on top of the hook when you tie them in.

Tie them in on top of the hook shank.  This can be done one at a time, in pairs, or all four at once.  Keep in mind that the concave sides of the feathers should be facing each other.

Apply enough wraps of thread to finish the head nice and evenly and then whip finish.

Apply several coats of head cement to complete the fly.  (Click HERE to read a Hatches Magazine article on how to create beautiful wet fly heads)