The Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear is a Callibaetis imitation designed for fishing lakes with dense vegetation and very slow moving water. Most of the time I fish it with a floating line allowing it to sink for a few seconds before retrieving it with short strips.

• Standard Shank Hook size 10 - 20
• Tan Thread
• Bunny Mask Natural (Tail)
• Medium Weight Gold Wire (Ribbing)
• Tan Hare's Ear Dubbing
• Brown Seal Fur Dubbing (Optional)
• Golden Dyed Turkey Quill (Wing Case)

Wrapping the Hook
Tie thread to hook with 4 or 5 half hitches. Wrap the hook with thread. DO NOT APPLY HEAD CEMENT AT THIS TIME!

Tail Material
The key to this fly is a very soft material for the tail. Select fur for variation of color. You will find rabbit fur to be a very fine and almost silky material. I start with about twice the amount of fur I'll need, as it tends to just evaporate while you tie it to the hook shank. Align the bundle of fur with your right hand then hold it in position with your left. If you can't find a bunny mask, you can use rabbit fur strips, or for smaller flies, partridge or quail feathers.

Attaching the Tail
Due to the fine nature of hare fur, the bundle is going to rotate around the hook shank when you tie it in. I start by positioning the bundle on the nearside of the hook to compensate. Start with a couple of loose wraps. Tighten them up as you keep the fur in position. Give it another half a dozen wraps. Because bunny fur doesn't work in a hair stacker, you will end up with a few overly long hairs. Pull these out with tweezers. Finish wrapping the tail material to the hook.

Ribbing
Tie a 3 to 4 inch piece of medium gold wire to the bottom of the hook shank.

Glue it Up!
Apply head cement to the thread along the hook shank. Make sure the tail area gets glued or it will fall out when you fish!

Body Dubbing
Prepare your dubbing. You can add some of the fur that is laying on your table left over from attaching the tail for a little color variation.

Constructing the Body
Wrap the dubbing half way up the hook shank. Tapering the thickness so it is slightly larger in front. You will want it to end up a little fat because the wire ribbing is going to compress the dubbing.

Ribbing the Body
Spiral the gold wire up the body, 4 wraps on large sizes, 3 on the small ones. Continue wrapping the hook shank in front of the body 5 times. Cut off excess wire.

Smoothing the Wire
Use forceps to get the end of the wire tightly wrapped around the hook shank. Wrap with thread until smooth.

Selecting the Wing Case
Cut a small piece of turkey wing slightly wider than the body (4-6 feather segments).

Tie in Wing Case
Position the turkey feather with the cut end toward the hook eye on top of the shank. Tie in and trim excess turkey feather.

Constructing the Thorax
Make the Thorax with more dubbing. I add a little brown seal fur (optional) which makes the dubbing a little rougher looking and does a better job of diffracting light than the fur dubbing material. Trim excess fur on the top side where the wing case will end up.

Making the Wing Case
Pull the turkey feather forward over the thorax and tie in.

Trim and Finish
Trim the excess turkey feather. Make sure it doesn't obstruct the eye of the hook. Finish the fly with a whip finish. Carefully apply a small amount of head cement, clear around the head of the fly without getting any in the hook eye. There is nothing more frustrating than being on the water and not being able to get your tippet through the hook eye because its obstructed with glue.

Finished Fly
Trim long hair and shape dubbing. Your fly should look something like this when you finish.

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Ugly Bug

Nothing but lead wire, a little bunny tail and dubbing. SIMPLE!

Hare's Ear

The "Classic Version" uses lead wire underbody, wood duck flank feathers for a tail, thin gold braid for a rib, and pheasant tail feather for the wing.