Tying a Fly Called Gull (gold) Tanna

Fly Tying Tutorial From Ívar’s Fly Workshop

It’s a Trout-Tuesday and this time we’re tying a baitfish like minnow called Tanna. The design and idea behind this fly is from my mentor mr. Jón Sigurðsson, specially the build up of the body of the fly. Tanna was designed in the 90’s and made great success for fishing large brownies in Laxá by Mývatn in the north east of Iceland. This pattern can also be tied with lighter colours for seatrout. Mylar piping, heat shrink tubes and matuka, all this in one fly! Enjoy the tutorial, it’s the longest I’ve made so far!

Here we will be tying the monster fly Tanna in it’s golden version. Tanna was originally designed for the northeast of Iceland, Laxá in Mývatnssveit and made a great success for the author up there. It caught many trouts and some of them large up to 6-7 kg! Tanna is a great option for running water and was designed for that. The last years though Jón Sigurðsson, the author of it started to tie it in brighter colours for attempting fishing seatrout with it from the coast. That gave as well great results and that’s when a light fly comes on handy like the Tanna. But Tanna is extremely light since the body is built up with those heat shrink tubes. The Tanna fly catches both brown trout and seatrout. It’s medium-hard to tie, but with practice, you should come out with similar results as in the video.

Pattern

Author: Jón Sigurðsson.
Hook: Ahrex NS118 #4
Thread: UTC 140 black.
Tail: 1 yellow marabou plume, 1 black marabou plume.
Rib: UNI medium copper or gold wire.
Underbody: Heat shrink tubes as shown in video.
Body: Golden mylar piping.
Wing: 2 Purple/black rooster feathers tied down with matuka method.
Head: Black.
Eyes: Painted on or epoxy eyes glued on.