Fly Tying a Picket Pin (Classic Wet Fly Pattern)

Created around 1910 by Jack Boehme of Missoula, Montana, the Picket Pin is named after the prairie dog he originally tied it with. (Prairie Dogs resembled the picket pins cowboys used to stake in the ground to tie their horses to so many old timers called these animals "picket pins.")


Hook: #8-12 nymph or wet
Thread: Black
Tail: Brown hackle fibers (or squirrel tail)
Rib: Small wire (usually gold or copper)
Body: Peacock herl
Hackle: Brown, palmered
Wing: Gray squirrel tail


** Some of the popular books used on this channel: **

Dave Hughes, "Essential Trout Flies," 2017, https://amzn.to/3lbCZYX
Dave Hughes, "Wet Flies," 2015, https://amzn.to/33ac3lQ
David Klausmeyer's "Favorite Flies," 2020, https://amzn.to/3oeSNMa
Morgan Lyle's "Simple Flies," 2015, https://amzn.to/3qB1zW1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: https://amzn.to/34U0rUe
Mike Valla's "Tying the Founding Flies," 2015, https://amzn.to/354oSir
Mike Valla's "Classic Streamer Fly Box," 2020, https://amzn.to/3n3Vakf
Randle Scott Stetzer's "Flies, the Best One Thousand," 1992, https://amzn.to/34Q15mp
Terry Hellekson's "Popular Fly Patterns," 1976, https://amzn.to/2L4IyvS
Dick Stewart's, "Flies for Bass and Panfish," 1992, https://amzn.to/3aGpFs1
Fly Pattern Encyclopedia: https://amzn.to/34U0rUe

Savage Flies is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River. I've been uploading new tying videos every Tuesday and Friday, with the occasional extra video on other days.

Thanks for stopping by. Please let me know in the comments if you have any tying tips you would like to share or if you have any patterns you would like to see tied here.