3-minute fly is a 6-part series by John Zimmerman of Casting For Hope and Upper Creek Angler.

Trees, rocks, big fish – they don’t care you spent half an hour on that perfectly tied fly.

I know because I’ve pleaded with them to give me back my precious flies before. Deaf ears!

I’ve been on a quest the last several years to identify simple flies that use simple, inexpensive materials, and take less than 3 minutes to tie. And I have a bunch of them. 

Blood's Blood Dot Egg.

If you’re an egg-slinger and don’t have a box full of Jeff Blood’s Blood Dot Eggs, you might want to rethink your inventory. 

This egg style is the single best I’ve encountered.

I've fished this fly for years and years in a variety of colors.

White with an orange center was my go-to until my fishing partner Squeak Smith asked me if I ever fished green and orange eggs. I thought, “there’s nothing in nature that color," but Squeak gave me one of his stream tied instant eggs in green and orange and I became a fan for life of the color assembly.

I went home that evening and used the Jeff Blood process for tying eggs with those two colors and put a shrimp pink Nymph-Head Heavy Metal bead on…I’ve caught more fish on this fly than anything else since making that change.

This fly is especially productive from October through January and March through May – or whenever the fish in your neck of the woods are spawning and eggs make up a substantial portion of the edible biomass in the water. 

Fly tying materials

Hook: Here I’m using a #10 barbless scud hook – but I tie these from 10-18s.
Bead: Nymph-Head® Heavy Metal™ tungsten bead, shrimp pink. This bead in shrimp pink is AWESOME!
Thread: I’m using fluorescent orange Veevus in 8/0 here.
Body: Chartreuse and fluorescent orange egg yarn – don’t try this with egg foam.

Fly tying instructions

Step 1

Load the bead and take your thread back to about the hook point.

Step 2

Prepare the egg yarn – split the yarn in four equal pieces. Sparse is a key word for this fly.

Tie in the primary color.

Step 3

Make a small loop by bringing the egg yarn over the hook. Tie off. Bring thread in front of the remaining yard.

Step 4

Make a second loop with the remaining yarn that goes over the first. Tie off.

Step 5

Tie in the contrasting color on top of the tie off point that you just finished the second loop with.

Step 6

With the remaining primary color yarn, push one more loop back over everything.

Step 7

Whip finish. Go in and clip out the contrasting color so that you’re only left with a little yolk in there and clip out the waste yarn. Stroke back the last loop.

Step 8

Go fishing! 

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Be sure to read John's recent post, They're at your feet, dude! 6 reasons to make shorter casts when wade fishing.

About John Zimmerman:

With Taylor Sharp (pictured left), John Zimmerman (right) is co-owner of Upper Creek Angler and co-founder and Chairman of the Board of directors of Casting for Hope. Upper Creek Angler is a guide and custom-built fly-rod service based in Morganton, NC. Casting for Hope is a regional nonprofit that serves women and families in Western North Carolina following a diagnosis of ovarian or other gynecological cancer through financial assistance and retreat programs. Casting for Hope’s flagship fundraiser is the only official Trout Legend Gold-Level fly-fishing competition on the east coast and one of just three in the United States. Watch the brief video below to learn more about Casting for Hope and the work John, Taylor, and their team are doing in WNC for women and families affected by ovarian and other gynecological cancers.