While skimming my Facebook page last December I came across a post from the Stonefly Society that showed a picture of Mickey’s Flash Bulb. The Flash Bulb is a bead-head attractor nymph with a small tail, an abdomen of peacock herl, and a UV Ice Dub thorax and veil. The fly looked cool. So, I put it on the backburner of my mind to tie at a later time.
Mickey Anderson's drawing of the Flash Bulb.
Later came about a month ago after going to Fish Tech (where Mickey Anderson works) to buy tying materials. While checking out, Mickey and I were talking about things I was going to tie and about the tutorial I did of his UV Worm when he started telling me about the Flash Bulb. It took a few seconds but the Flash Bulb came back to the forefront of my mind and we started talking more in depth about his fly. He drew me a picture of his Flash Bulb and explained that when tying on the veil you should take a clump of UV Ice Dub, even up the ends, flatten the dubbing out and use the thread help the UV Ice Dub fibers wrap around the hook. He drew out this process for me as well. At this point of our conversation I had already paid for my materials and decided I wasn’t done getting tying materials. I went back to Fish Tech’s fly tying section and proceeded to gather the materials needed to tie Mickey’s Flash Bulb. When I brought them up to the counter, as Mickey was checking me out once more, he realized that the materials I was buying were for his Flash Bulb and noticed that I had got the wrong Ice Dub for the veil. I thought that it was okay because I had the general color right. I had a brown shade of UV dubbing for the veil because Mickey’s recipe called for UV Brown. I don’t remember what color I had but it looked Brown but was not labeled brown I couldn’t find UV Brown so I settled for a shade of brown. Mickey was kind enough to get me the right brown for the Flash Bulb and tried to make me feel better about my blindness because the package of dubbing read UV Brown. This was a bit confusing because the label may have read UV Brown but the dubbing looked to be a shade of purple. I asked Mickey about this and then he asked me to hold the package of dubbing to the light. I did so and thought my eyes were playing tricks because the dubbing went from purple to brown in the light. He explained that this is why I needed the UV Brown dubbing and not the other stuff I had. Honest mistake right?!
Completed Flash Bulb in the vise.
During our conversation, Mickey shared a fishing experience he had while fishing the Flash Bulb last year when he went out with KSL (a news network in Utah). He told me how on that particular day, between him and the guys he was fishing with, they caught thirty fish that day and of those thirty, twenty seven were caught on the Flash Bulb.
Tying the Flash Bulb is pretty straight forward. It can be tied weighted or unweighted; although, I believe it was meant to be fished weighted so as to allow the fly to get deep. Using rust thread, tie in a few hen saddle feather fibers as a tail then tie in a few strands of peacock herl as an abdomen. After tying in the peacock herl, rib the abdomen with brown Ultra Wire then wrap some UV Shrimp Pink dubbing around the hook to create the thorax and tie in the veil in the way described above or if you have another way, you can do that to. The idea is to have the UV Brown Ice Dub fibers flow not only back to the tail of the fly but also around the fly. One more thing don’t use too much UV Brown dubbing, you should be able to see the thorax and abdomen pretty clearly after tying in the veil.
Mickey Anderson's Flash Bulb
HOOK:
TCM 3761 size 12
BEAD:
1/8" Copper
WEIGHT:
.020 Lead Wire
THREAD:
6/0 Uni-Thread - Rust
TAIL:
India Hen Saddle Fibers - Brown
RIB:
Ultra Wire - Med. Copper Brown
ABDOMEN:
Peacock Herl
THORAX:
UV Ice Dub - Shrimp Pink
VEIL:
UV Ice Dub - Brown
Thank you Mickey Anderson for taking the time to explain to me how to tie the Flash Bulb.
To check out Fishbait's Fly Box's article on Mickey Anderson's UV Worm/Juan go here.
Now that you have read through this article about Mickey Anderson's Flash Bulb please take some time to watch me tie the Flash Bulb. Enjoy this tie and please remember to please follow fishbaitsflybox.com by clicking the “Join This Site” button in the top of the right hand column of the site. “Like” Fishbait’s Fly Box by clicking like at the top of the right hand column or by clicking here and then "Like" or "Follow" and subscribe to Fishbait’s Fly Box on YouTube by clicking HERE and then click subscribe.
