Feathersmith was born from the passion we have here at Barbless Flies for fly fishing. We treat all of our flies as we would a piece of jewellery and look at each as a miniature work of art - it's all about quality materials and attention to detail.

This fifth in the series of kits focuses on a variant of the popular 'Slayer' Nymph - a pattern which has become increasingly popular when fishing for both Trout nd Grayling. It's defining feature is the body made from Shetland Spindrift 100% natural wool.

This Feathersmith kit is supplied with all of the materials to allow you to tie the Trout and Grayling variants of the nymph.

Our Spindrift Slayer kit contains:

• BEKKR Wide-Gape Jig Hooks #12, #14 & #16
• Silver Slotted Tungsten Beads – 4.6mm, 4.0mm & 3.5mm
• Classic Red 8/0 Thread
• Shetland Spindrift (Oyster - 2.5m)
• Shetland Spindrift (Spagnum - 5m)
• Semperfli Straggle String - (Brown Olive)

PLEASE NOTE: If you're just starting out on tying flies, these bonus videos from our fly-tying maestro in Bosnia will give you a great grounding. They are designed to, give you the basic skills required to tie any fly in our Feathersmith kits:

First lets show you how to tie each variant of the fly, starting with:

Spindrift Slayer - Trout Variant

Spindrift Slayer - Grayling Variant

Notes on dressing the Spindrift Slayer Nymph:

You should always aim to have your flies not overdressed – the final fly should be quite thin – a good guide is to always use about half as much material as you think you will need. This is easily achieved when tying with a 2-ply wool, all you need to do is split the ply and use a single strand to tie the body.

This nymph, like all river flies should be tied to match the river conditions … for example, in faster water you may need to add slightly more weight, in slower water less weight is required, so you could opt to use a smaller bead. It’s always good practice to tie up 2 or 3 variations of the same fly to match the different conditions you will face on the water.

Hook/Bead Sizes:
- Size 12 Jig hook = 4.6mm Slotted Bead
- Size 14 Jig hook = 4.0mm Slotted Bead
- Size 16 Jig hook = 3.5mm Slotted Bead.

I'm assuming you now have a box full of Spindrift Slayer nymphs - all tied by yourself. So, how do you get the best from them when fishing?