Lefty Kreh, one the most recognised fly fishermen in the world, created the original Lefty’s Deceiver back in the late 50´s to fish saltwater. He was looking for a streamer that would be easy to cast and would not wrap around the bend of the hook.

“I’m going to design a fly that won’t foul on the cast! It will have a fish shape, but can be made in many lengths. You can vary the colour combinations; it will also swim well but when lifted for the back cast, it will be sleek and have little air-resistance. I only hoped it would work and didn’t consider it might become a part of fly-fishing history. The first Lefty’s Deceivers were pretty simple.

They were tied with a wing of four to eight saddle hackles tied in at the bend of the hook, and they had a simple bucktail or calf tail collar at the front of the hook. The fly was all white, which is still one of the best all-round colours. It may have been two or three years before I added other colours. As I recall the first colour change I made was to have a white wing and red collar. Other combinations followed.”
– Lefty Kreh

Lefty’s Deceiver is usually tied in hook sizes ranging from #2 to #4 and the most popular colours are white and yellow with darker tones for the body (green, red, blue, pale blue), though sometimes totally black is used too

The following is Paul Fedeles’ variant of Mick Hall’s technique.

Download tying instructions

Materials

• Hook: Size 1/0 Kirby Kendal (straight eye)
• Thread: Invisible thread. (Coles, Woollies, Big W etc.)
• Tail: Six saddle hackles white or something close
• Tail: Two grizzly hackles
• Tail: Twenty strands of crystal flash
• Body 1: Silver braid
• Body 2: Paul’s fake bucktail (an unnamed Tiewell product)
• Body 3: Chartreuse EP fibres instead of bucktail
• Head: Stick on eyes
• Finish: UV resin

Instructions

1. Crush the barb and straighten hook in the vise.
2. Above the point of the hook
   • Tie 6 white saddle hackles splayed in, 3 on each side.
   • Tie in a grizzly hackle one on each side
   • Tie in 15 to 20 stands of Crystal flash on top of the hook
3. Remove the centre cloth from the silver braid.
4. Tie in the braid at the point of the hook and wrap full length of body section
5. Tie the fake buck tail on the bottom of the hook just behind the eye wrapping it around the body
6. Tie in fake buck tail a on top of the hook
7. Wrapping it around the body
8. Tie in a small clump of chartreuse buck tail on top.
9. Wrap enough thread to make a small head.
10. Whip finish and a small amount of head cement
11. Stick on eyes and cover head with UV Resin.