The Hornberg Special

The Hornberg special is a fly developed by a game warden from Wisconsin named Frank Hornberg. The fly was originally meant to be fished either dry or wet, although I've only fished it wet.  Despite some of it's non-typical streamer characteristics, it fishes surprisingly well.

Materials Needed:
Hook:  3xl-6xl streamer hook.  It was originally tied with a standard dry fly hook.
Thread:  Orange 8/0 UNI-thread
Body:  Silver tinsel.
Under wing:  A segment of bucktail tips dyed yellow.
Wing:  Two mallard flank feathers of similar size.
Eye:  Jungle cock.  Jungle cock is hard to find these days, but there are many substitutes.
Hackle collar:  Grizzly dry fly hackle.

Start your thread near the eye of the hook.

Tie in your silver tinsel.

Wrap your tinsel to the back of the hook shank.

Wrap the tinsel back to the front of the hook.

Tie the tinsel off with your thread, and trim the butt end.

Tie in a clump of bucktail.  Wrap the thread through the butt ends of the buck tail to secure them tightly to the hook shank.

Wrap your thread tightly over the butt ends of the bucktail fibers.











Select 2 similarly sized mallard flank feathers, and strip the fibers from the base of the feathers.

Measure the feathers so they extend about half the length, to the full length of the hook shank, beyond the actual hook shank.

Flatten the stem on the feather with your pliers so it's easier to tie in.

Tie the feathers in one at a time with the concave side facing the hook shank.





















Trim the butt ends of the mallard flank feathers.
























Tie in your jungle cock on either side of the wings.











Trim the butt ends.

Tie in your grizzly hackle.

Wrap 8-10 wraps of hackle to build a collar.

Tie off the hackle with thread, and trim the butt end.

Whip finish and apply head cement.