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It’s often said that fly tying is a pursuit where small things matter a great deal. Nowhere is that more evident than in the modest wire rib—a detail some overlook, but which in the hands of a thoughtful tyer, can lift a fly from competent to quietly extraordinary.

For many newcomers, ribbing is a functional flourish. It binds, it holds, it shines a bit under light. But those of us who’ve spent seasons at the bench—and longer on the water—come to see wire as something more: a design tool, a structural spine, a signal of intention.

This piece explores a handful of wire ribbing techniques that I’ve seen—and used—over the years. They are neither complicated nor quick, but they do represent that gentle transition from tying flies to crafting them.

Advanced Wire Ribbing Fly Tying Techniques

1. Counter-Ribbing

If you wrap wire in the same direction as your body dubbing, it has a habit of sinking in. The solution—so obvious it’s easily missed—is to wrap your wire in the opposite direction.

Build your body clockwise. Then rib counter-clockwise. Or vice versa. The result is subtle: the wire sits atop the dubbing, not within it. It gleams, it segments more cleanly, and the whole fly lasts longer—especially under the jaws of a trout or bass that doesn’t nibble gently.

2. Pre-Spinning

There’s a quiet trick I learned from a tyer who specialized in small-stream flies many years ago: lightly spin your fine wire before wrapping it forward. The twist adds stiffness, yes, but more importantly, it gives the fly’s abdomen a segmented texture that feels organic.

Especially on midges and chironomids, where illusion and proportion carry the whole impression.

Advanced Fly Tying Wire Techniques

How the Ahrex AFW554 Refined Jig Nymph Tying

3. Flat Ribbing

There are flies where you want your ribbing to show without bulking the body—CDC emergers, soft hackles, spidery patterns where profile matters. For those, I’ll take smooth-jawed pliers and flatten my wire slightly before tying it in.

What results is a ribbon, not a cord. It lays close, doesn’t intrude, and offers just enough contrast to suggest the segmentation of a mayfly or the memory of a natural.

4. The Double Rib

One of the more satisfying experiments is to rib a fly with two wires: say, a fine black paired with red. Wrap them out of phase—so they alternate, one tight, one spaced. It adds colour, movement, even a little mystery.

It’s a favourite on certain Czech-style nymphs and attractors. The sort of pattern you pull from your box when nothing else is moving and you need to catch the trout’s eye.

5. Ribbing Over Fragile Fibres

If you’ve ever wrapped wire over CDC or soft dubbing, you’ll know how easily those materials compress. The trick is to support them first with a dubbing loop, build the body, then rib over it gently. Let the wire kiss the fibres, not strangle them.

This protects the movement you’ve built into the fly while still adding the durability a fish demands.

Bonus Tips and Tricks

Wiggle wire to break it off, never snip—it leaves a neater finish.

A thin coat of UV resin or head cement over wire can lock it in and brighten the colour.

Match wire colours to insect tones, not your thread—olive, brown, copper, chartreuse. There’s a subtlety in choosing what not to make obvious. And obvious tip perhaps, but then that is a good way to tie this up... Whip finish, if you like: These aren’t shortcuts, they’re small adjustments in technique that accumulate to create a fly that does (and looks) exactly what (and how) you hoped it would.

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