Deceptive

Obviously, it's been around for ages and most saltwater anglers know about it, and probably have at least couple in one of their boxes. It's also a great fly for a lot of freshwater predators. I don't know how many people actually still use them regularly, but it's certainly not a fly that's fading into the mists of time. It's staying around and is rightfully still holding its own against newer designs. Because it works. For almost anything. Bass, snook, stripers, tarpon, trout... You name it, they'll probably eat it! It's an easy tie that doesn't rely on materials that are difficult to get or overly expensive, and you can probably do one in 5 minutes if you don't fuck about with unnecessary rubbish. They can be tied from about 2" to 7", make them thick and water pushy, slinky and skinny or somewhere in between. Of courses there are limitations in size and volume because of the materials, but there are other flies that give you those options- some of them like the hollow fleye or BEAST arguably only exist because the deceiver came first.

Here's the dressing

Hook: Standard SW of your choice
Thread: 210 Flat waxed nylon
Tail: A bunch of saddle hackles & flash
Collar: Bucktail
Throat: Red flash

You can add eyes, peacock topping, some kind of body material, sides or other embellishments but they're for the angler more than the fish. You absolutely DO NOT need super select bucktail- Use shorter finer hair from a lower grade tail-they're only lower grade because they're more common and people want to buy tails with 6" hair because they think it's better. I hate seeing people using superb long wavy hair and cutting several inches off the bottom, which ruins the taper and swimminess of the hair especially when they are "teaching". The one possible downfall of the deceiver is that you might find it not very durable, but liberal amounts of cement between the tying stages help a lot, and remember, they're just a 5 minute tie. Here's a video of the man himself tying one.