River Royalty

Tying the Mega Prince.  

Designed on the Madison River by fishing guide, fly designer, and shop owner Dan Delekta, the Mega Prince combines many great flies and materials. The end result is a mega-fish catcher! How could a trout pass up a T-bone steak after feeding on frozen chicken fingers all winter?

This fly best mimics stonefly nymphs that are a staple food of local trout, especially in spring and early summer, just before most of our larger stoneflies hatch into winged adults. It fishes especially well on the upper Madison, Yellowstone, and Gallatin rivers, though also does well on any river with a large population of stoneflies. It is typically dead-drifted underneath a strike indicator and trailed by a smaller dropper pattern.

Materials
Hook: Dai-Riki 710 or Firehole Stick 839, sizes 6-10
Bead: Copper brass bead
Thread: 6/0 or 140 denier black
Antenna/Legs: Crazy Legs barred golden yellow/pearl flake
Head: Peacock Ice Dub
Tail: Brown grizzly marabou and Crazy Legs barred golden yellow/pearl flake
Body: Peacock herl
Rib: Medium copper wire
Wing: White biots
Collar: Brown hen hackle or Hungarian partridge and Ice Dub 

Instructions
1. Apply bead to hook so that larger hole is facing eye of hook.
2. Push bead toward bend of hook, start thread behind eye, dub small ball of Ice Dub, and attach two Sili Legs for antenna that are the same length as hook shank.
3. Tie off and slide bead forward against antenna and head. (For added weight, add a few wraps of non-lead wire to the shank and push up against the bead, covering in several wraps of thread to prevent twisting.) 
4. Re-attach thread behind bead and advance thread to barb of hook. Tie in marabou tail that is half the length of shank.
5. Attach two Sili Legs that are the full length of shank.
6. Attach copper wire and several strands of peacock herl, advance thread to 2/3 point of shank, and tie in set of legs with figure eight. Each leg should be equal to length of shank.
7. Advance thread to just behind bead and wrap peacock herl to bead. Counter-wrap copper wire.
8. Tie in and wrap hen or Hungarian partridge feather 1-2 full wraps.
9. Tie in two biots, so tips form a V and extend to end of body. Dub enough Ice Dub to cover thread wraps and create small collar.
10. Tie off and add head cement.

The video above is courtesy of the Fly Fishers International archive. 

Jimmy Armijo-Grover is the general manager of Gallatin River Guides in Big Sky and has been obsessed with fly tying and fly fishing since 1993.