Green Butt Lum Plum
By Amy Hazel
The Green Butt Lum Plum is my go-to pattern for the Deschutes River summer steelhead. When they seem to reject everything else, they can't resist this fly. I invented this fly in my first year of guiding the Deschutes back in 1999 under the watchful eyes of John Hazel and Dec Hogan. We had a fly tying bench in our kitchen back then, and John and Dec used to lean over my shoulder as I tied late night flies for the next day's adventure on the river. One day our friend, Bill Lum, brought us this purple yarn from a little yarn store in Seattle. It was thin and easier to use than dubbing, yet a lot more sleek than chenille. Dec came up with the name "Lum Plum" for the first fly we tied with the yarn, which always had a white wing with a little flash. As a guide fly, the Lum Plum not only attracted steelhead, it was a fly that we could follow with our eyes from a tree or a high bank as our clients swung it through our favorite steelhead runs. While guiding, we get the initial thrill of the grab just by watching a wild steelhead rise from the grey depths to follow the lum plum for fifteen or twenty feet. The grab usually comes when the fly starts to get into the shallow water and seems to be getting away from the steelhead.
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Step 1
Start with a beautiful Alec Jackson Spey Hook. The original Lum Plum pattern is tied on the Nickel hook, but it also looks very nice on a black AJ Spey hook. Tie in a green butt equal with the point of the hook. The green butt can be a chartreuse uni-yarn, a neon chartreuse uni floss, or to dress it up a bit - a bit of Lagartun French flat mini-braid in flourescent chartreuse. Tie in golden pheasant tippet dyed orange (about 6-10 barbules from one side of the feather) as a tail. To gauge length, imagine a line drawn vertically up from the bend of the hook and make the tip of the tail even with that line. The tips of the feathers should not extend beyond that line. The green yarn butt will help the tail stick up at an angle. To keep the tail from splaying, always make your wraps from the back of the hook towards the eye of the hook. If you wrap towards the butt the tail will splay. Never use the center section of the tail.
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Step 2
Tie in about 4 inches of oval silver French tinsel to be used as ribbing. Tie in a double layer of Lum Plum Yarn. Position your thread about half way up the hook and tie the yarn so that it lays flat but takes up about half the hook. Wrap the thread all the way back to the tail to secure the yarn.
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Step 3
Cut 4-8 strands of flashabou (Holographic Silver or Flashabou Mirage Opal or Pearl Flashabou). Measure the Flashabou so that when you lay it down on the hook it is the same length as the distance from the eye of the hook to the base of the tail. Tie the Flashabou in forward extending out over the eye of the hook. This is the overwing.
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Step 4
Snip out a section of white artic fox, imitation polar bear/kid goat hair or real polar bear if you have it. Clean out all the soft fuzzy underfur and put the hair into a stacker tips down. Tap the stacker on the table and open it carefully to find the hair neatly stacked with all the tips even. Measure the hair to be the same length as the Flashabou and tie it in over the Flashabou. This is called tying in the wing reverse style. The butt ends of the hair will extend down the shank of the hook until they are abutting the Lum Plum yarn that we tied in earlier. Wrap thread all the way along the butt ends of the hair to be sure that it is very secure.
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Step 5
Position the thread so that it is about 1/10th of an inch back from the eye of the hook. Wrap the Lum Plum yarn strands forward, making a nice even body. Tie off and trim.
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Step 6
Wrap the silver wire forward so that you have exactly five even turns of the wire from back to front. Tie off and trim.
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Step 7
Select a small purple guinea fowl feather - these are hard to find because most shops sell only the jumbo guinea fowl feathers and those are too long and the stems are too thick. We bought a huge amount of strung guinea feathers and we dye our own feathers for the Lum Plum flies and other flies with purple hackle. These are small guinea feathers with thin stems that are really easy use. Pick a purple guinea feather and bend it next to your fly. Measure it to see that the fibers extend half way to three quarters of the way down the hook. The fibers should not touch the point of the hook. Massage the feather from the tip down and tie it in tip first. Trim the tip and gently wrap the feather just behind the point where the wing is tied in. Use your fingers to make sure the fibers are combed back as you wrap the feather onto the hook. When you are finished, all the fibers should flow back nicely. Trim the stem off.
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Step 8
Now you are nearly finished! You must now fold the wing back and tie it down. To do this, first pinch the wing and overwing down tightly with your fingers. You are trying to reduce bulk so that you have a fairly small head on your finished fly. If you have used a lot of hair it will be difficult to get a tiny head. The arctic fox and imitation polar bear/kid goat hair are fairly fine, but not as fine as using polar bear hair. I you are having a problem with big bulky heads we suggest always using the finest thead you can use (I like 8/0) and making the wing a little more sparse. Once you have pinched the wing back, begin wrapping turns of thread from the eye of the fly backwards until you are securing the bent back wing.
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