Jim Cannon's "Bunny Dun"

I first read about Jim Cannon's snowshoe hare patterns in Ed Engle's "Tying Small Flies" (ISBN 0-8817-0082-8). He described the material as poor man's CDC and noted it's fantastic floatation properties. Unlike CDC it's as tough as hell, making for rugged flies that last well - and more importantly keep you fishing. I've only recently started to tie with snowshoe hare's foot, after Roy Christie sent me one in natural dun/cream/white - a single foot has it all, and enough material for scores of flies, maybe hundreds if you tie small.

The original pattern has a goose biot abdomen. If you apply a layer of Hard As Nails before wrapping, the fly becomes almost indestructible... the one below caught five wild trout to 12" and looks good enough for another dozen.


The original also uses beaver dubbing for the thorax. In the interests of resilience I've used Fly-Rite poly dubbing - this can be dubbed tight and so extends the life of the fly.

Engle's preferred hook is the TMC 101 in #18 to #26. The one below is on a TMC 101 #24, with a thread body replacing the goose biot. It takes a bit of practice to work with an appropriate amount of showshoe at this scale but it worth it. Tails are exaggerated to act as a trigger whilst stabilising the fly as it alights.


There's a simply excellent SBS here.

Tie some up, hit the water - action assured.....