Sunrise Special

Hook: TMC 3761 or any standard wet, up to 4X long.

Size: #10 – 14.
Thread: red 6/0.
Tail: red-dyed golden pheasant tippets.
Body: peacock herl (roped).
Rib: gold tinsel or wire.
Hackle: brown (palmered).

Photo Courtesy of Rick Obermiller

Instructions:

1.      Tie in several strands of red-dyed golden pheasant tippets or red hackle fibers from a saltwater or bass cape for the tail. 

2.      An option is to weight this fly with 6-8 wraps of .25 or .35 lead.  Another popular version is to use a gold beadhead.

3.      Tie in the gold ribbing.  The flat tinsel type works best.

4.      Tie in the brown hackle; palmered (tip first).

5.      Tie in 3-4 strands of peacock herl.  Form a peacock herl rope by twisting it around your thread. 

6.      Wrap peacock rope near eye of hook and tie off (wrap and tie off gold ribbing here too and remember to wrap the ribbing in the opposite direction of the peacock). 

7.      Wrap brown hackle forward 5-6 times, tie off.

8.      Whip-finish and apply head cement.

Comments: 

     For a great picture of the original version of this fly, click here.  This is another great fly that is used by serious float tubers here in AZ.  It is fished much like the AZ Peacock Lady, and not much different than any other nymph or wet fly.  Several different retrieves and techniques will work for this fly and is an excellent producer of all species of trout.  It contains the red and peacock colors AZ stillwater trout love so much.

     This is a versatile pattern that can be tied with or without a beadhead or lead wraps underneath the body.  This is a very popular White Mountains fly and often the first pattern any float tuber ties on when visiting lakes such as Sunrise or Big Lake.  When I last used this fly at Big Lake in November, I used a very slow retrieve with short strips in the cold water, but have also caught fish with it while blind casting to the shorelines and stripping in using long and fast retrieves when the water is warmer.  Sunrise Specials are typically tied with a beadhead, but heard of reports of equal success when tied with a weighted body (as pictured above).   Size 14 is the typical size I use, but have caught many fish using sizes 10 – 12 as well.  Works great as a trailer behind a larger streamer pattern or fished as a lead fly with a smaller trailer about 18” behind it.  Like the AZ Peacock Lady, this fly is productive year-round in Arizona for trout in the White Mtns. or Mogollon Rim lakes.