Over the last three decades of steelhead fly design, the Intruder has proved to be the most enduring and successful style of fly. The plethora of new materials available has enabled a seemingly limitless spectrum of possibilities. While the style has evolved in the years since its Pacific Northwest and Alaska inception, the basic formula of this style has not. Essentially, an Intruder is a long-shanked fly with a large, ideally relatively stiff front post and a smaller rear post with a space between. Motion and movement are provided by materials such as ostrich herl or rhea propped up against the posts. The fly contributed directly to the development of the first Skagit heads, which were chopped-up Frankensteins of heavy saltwater lines needed to cast this large fly.
The reason for the sometimes laugh-inducing size of these “half-a-chicken” flies was the aggressive bites elicited from bright steelhead and king salmon. The thinking was that the bigger the fly, the harder the grab. Modern Intruder design consists of smaller average size and sparser design that is easier to cast, but still presents a prominent profile. The most significant benefit to the Intruder is the hook being detached from the longer shank or body of the fly, limiting the leverage of the hook against the fish and increasing the landing percentage.
The attached diagram outlines many of the details of a typical modern Intruder.
SECTION 1: SHANK/TUBE
With a tube fly, you will need a “tube needle/tool” to secure the tube in your vise. The fly is tied directly on the tube, and a little “junction tubing” length is used to secure one of the small hooks listed in Section 4. A significant advantage of the tube system is the ease of changing hooks. Your tippet travels through the internal tube and attaches to the hook, secured to the fly with a bit of junction tubing.
A metal shank offers a versatile platform for tying a wide style of patterns and is perfect for Intruder-style flies. Choose a round eye shank if you use cones and a return eye shank for a more stable platform for tying on barbell eyes. Shanks are manufactured in multiple lengths for different fly sizes.
SECTION 2: WEIGHT
There are eyes, and there are eyes. In the limited time your fly has to sink after a cast and mend, you want to ensure it gets down. A slow to moderate sink is desirable when fishing a shallow riffle or boulder garden and a faster sink is required when fishing deeper or heavier water. Brass, lead, or tungsten eyes of differing sizes are your options, based on how fast you want your fly to sink. After you attach the Intruder wire, this will be the first item added to your fly. Eyes are available in every color of the rainbow. Note: Eyes may invert your fly, making it easier to ensure your fly rides hook point up, reducing snagging the bottom. Hook point-up also aids in keeping the hook away from the fish’s sensitive gills and tongue.
If you’re using a tube fly system, you can slide a conehead onto the tube after you tie it. To minimize wasted space, slide the cone down onto the front of the finished fly. Cut the tube just beyond the front of the cone and touch the plastic briefly with a flame to flare the plastic and secure the cone.
SECTION 3: STINGER/TRAILING WIRE
The shank with trailing wire technique is the easiest for a beginner to tackle. The wire is doubled over and runs up the shank, ideally through the eye of the shank, and then back down the shank and cut. Secure the wire with thread wraps along the entire shank. It’s important to tie with a stiff but flexible wire and not soft, limp material. You want your hook to stick out straight behind the fly. Aqua Flies, OPST, and Senyo wire work well. Make sure to leave enough room to allow for changing out the hook, which you do by putting the doubled wire through the hook eye, slipping it over the hook, and then pulling tight.
SECTION 4: THE HOOK
Make it strong, barbless, and sharp. Owner SSW, OPST Swing Hooks and Aqua Talon hooks are among steelhead swing anglers’ favorites. Typically, upturned eye is best for a straight connection.
SECTION 5: THE REAR STATION
[5.1 The Rear Prop] Tyers often put an “egg butt” here. Salmon eggs are deeply ingrained in the brains of anadromous fish. It’s hard for them to refuse. No matter the color, I often put an egg butt in the back. The butt, with flowing materials tied right up against it, acts as a prop to flare the materials, contributing to the fly’s action. Several excellent chenilles out there make excellent butts, and an abundance of dubbing options accomplish this as well.
[5.2 Twin Tails] These are ostrich, rhea, arctic fox, or other fibers that are tied tight up against the butt on either side, meant to provide motion in the back of the fly. You could also tie the rear wing on top of the shank, but this is less common.
[5.3 Hackle] You can use a hackle at the rear and front of the fly to make the fly prettier and take up space if necessary. Guinea is excellent for this effect. Schlappen is also suitable for this and moves well in the current. It should be tied directly in front of the twin tails.
SECTION 6: THE BODY
The body, between the front and rear station, can be flashy or not, with a hackle feather palmered, Woolly Bugger style, or not. Adding a wire rib will give it more durability. A wide range of excellent body materials is available, including Diamond Braid, French tinsel, Chinese hackle (wrapped Woolly Bugger style), schlappen hackle (wrapped Woolly Bugger style), and more. Polar Chenille makes a good body in wide wraps.
SECTION 5: THE FRONT STATION
The front station is the most visible part of the fly. It also creates a hydrofoil, allowing for more flare in the rear materials. A prop [7.1 Front Prop] can be helpful here to help flare your material just as in the rear station. You can follow the same formula as the rear station, but I usually use the “composite loop,” a dubbing loop incorporating several materials that makeup [7.2 Front Shoulder] and [7.3 Front Hackle].
If this is your first time encountering a dubbing loop, it’s a method of dubbing with relatively longer-fibered dubbings that don’t dub well traditionally. Dubbing often makes up the base of the composite loop, but with a lot of dexterity you can make composite loops without dubbing, too.
I add one or more materials into the loop to provide some stiffness, like turkey or ripple ice wing fiber. I love Lady Amherst tail as well. When tying with natural materials, use a toothbrush to break the adhesions between the feather barbs before adding them to the assembly. Usually, I’ll add one or more flashy, supple materials as well. Countless materials, from Flashabou to Baitfish Emulator Flash to Krystal Flash, work well in composite loops. These materials are stacked, aligned, tweaked, and trimmed on your bench before inserting into the composite loop (take your time!). Because natural materials have a taper, you will want them aligned to one side of the loop and trim the excess on the butt side. Your assembly of materials on the bench should be three times the length of the shank you’re wrapping. It is crucial to use heavy enough thread. I like 140 denier Veevus. 210 denier is good, too. However, with heavier thread you will have less space at the front of the fly.
Once you load the stack of materials in the dubbing loop, if you get your left (or off) hand involved and apply tension you can trim, pull, and tweak the materials significantly just as you want. This is another chance to clean up the butts of the natural materials.
Once your material is teased into position, it’s time to spin it. A heavy dubbing spinner, like from OPST or Loon Outdoors, makes a difference. You should be able to spin the tool and have it continue spinning on its own momentum. It takes a lot of spinning to make the thread grab onto the materials. Test the loop integrity by gently pulling some fibers. If you break the thread, try spreading out your materials and try again, spinning a little less, or use heavier thread. You want as much thread-to-material contact as possible. Clumps of material with no thread contact will be loose and easily pulled out, so spread your materials.
Once you have spun the loop, use a toothbrush or commercially produced dubbing brush to brush out any trapped fibers. Then, use water to get it nice and wet and make it more compact for wrapping. Squeeze, part, and palmer the assembly as you wrap, as you would with a feather, to minimize bulk.
[7.4 The Wing] In my Intruders I always add a wing, whether two saddle hackles (my preference) or ostrich (this is easier, with the fibers tied on top of the shank). You could also use a micro rabbit strip or Arctic fox here. With saddle feathers, select hackles from opposite sides of the bird (not critical) and run your fingernails down the length of the stem, applying pressure to flatten them, and then make the effort to place them symmetrically. With saddle hackles, this can take some patience.
[7.5 Front Collar] Lastly, add a schlappen, guinea, or (very pretty) silver pheasant feather at the front of the fly to finish and help hold up the fly profile in the water.
The Intruder continues to inspire new generations of tyers. You could spend years exploring and tinkering with different combinations of materials. I suggest checking out your local fly shop’s materials, checking out YouTube, and having fun with it.
