Tiny Stewart's Black Spider
Photo taken with the fly attached to a 10x (0.08 mm) leader gently hooked on my left thumb for comparison.
Since this probably the tiniest hook available in some quantity now I think that this might be the tiniest Stewart's Black Spider ever tied. I saw it tied on a TMC #32 which has a much bigger hook gap but is shorter and that kind of instpired me to tie it on this old vintage Mustad hook. For comparison of hook see the picture below and judge for yourself.
The hook at the bottom is the TMC 518 #32. The hook at the top is the one I used for this Black Spider and the materials are the original. Brown Gossamer silk and a Starling feather. To get the silk thinner and make this possible I separated the Gossamer silk into the 3 strands that it's made of. So to tie this fly I used a third of a normal Gossamer Silk thread and that wasn't too hard actually. It becomes similar to the Uni-Thread Trico 17/0. For another comparison I've put the Mustad inside the TMC 518 #32 in the picture below.
This Golden Mustad hook measures like a 5:th of an inch long and the hook gap measures like a 25:th of an inch. Taking into account that it's a spade hook you have only about a 10:th of an inch of hook shank to tie on.
I have given some of theese hooks to friends to try out and now I'm considering to sell some of my stash since I need some other tying materials. It comes in boxes of 100 each. So if there is enough interest I might sell some boxes. If you're interested contact me on meo@spray.se and give a bid for the first box of 100 hooks.
Have fun guys and I'd love some comments about the fly; if it might be the smallest Black Spider ever tied to satisfy my curiosity in the matter.
Kind Regards,
Mats Olsson
CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE
That certainly is a tiny spider!
SvaraRadera