Deer hair Coffin fly

The Coffin fly represents the spinner stage of the Eastern Green Drake.

The olive green body of the dun changes to a white-ish body when it matures to a spinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rare video with Winnie & Mary Dette

Here are two pretty rare videos with Winnie and her daughter Mary Dette about the early beginnings of the Dette's fly tying operation. The second video Mary ties their famous Coffin fly and Winnie explains how it got its name.

 

Elk hair Green Drake

Elk hair Green Drake dun and spinner (aka Coffin Fly).

The idea of this design is to make a large profile fly with less bulk.

Using a 1x (or even regular length) hook, less bulky body (strands of Elk hair rather than a long dubbing body) and long pheasant tail fibers for tails.

In this video I show how I tie the Coffin fly. For the dun use an olive dyed elk hair for the body, some sort of dun shade hackle tip for the wings (I like the wider profile of a hen feather) and a dun hackle.

Coffin Fly

This Coffin Fly (Eastern green drake spinner) is a serious big bug 😳

Here is one tied by Winnie Dette.

The real thing