Sparklesvelte Blood Worm

Sparklesvelte Blood worm

It's hard to beat the effectiveness of a simple blood worm pattern, whether on a lake or in a river or small stream. And while the Gut Bomb, discussed here and here, is my go-to still water blood worm pattern, the Sparklesvelte is what I'd call a specialist pattern. It works well when fish are picky or when imitating much smaller midge larva in streams or rivers.

I keep a good number of these little guys in both my stream/river nymphing boxes as well as my still water boxes. You never know when they might come in handy. The rainbow shown below was taken on a Sparklesvelte when bigger nymphs weren't producing as well and a throat sample showed a good number of smaller blood worms in the mix. It ended up catching a lot of fish that day.

Nice little Rainbow that fell to the Sparklesvelte

And the nice thing about it, is that it's a super-simple fly to tie and you can literally tie around 100 an hour.

Material List

Hook: Daiichi 1150 #18 (+) (for smaller sizes, go with the Daiichi 1130 #20 - #24 (+)
Thread: Uni 8/0 - Red (+)
Body: Veevus Holographi Tinsel, Med - Cranberry (+)
Rib: Thread
Body Coat: Loon Fluorescing UV Clear Fly Finish (+)