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| Hints and Tips Working with materials Hackles that have been crushed or badly packaged can be brought back to life by holding them over the spout of a steaming kettle. This works for all cock and hen hackles but also for peacock herl. (Obviously, find a way to hold them over the steam without burning yourself – e.g. a long handed sieve or tongs …). | When working with peacock, ostrich, pheasant tail or any feather herl, remember that the tips may be weakened by wear. It’s therefore a good idea to cut off a small section of the tip – around an inch off peacock herl, a quarter of an inch off pheasant tail – to have a stronger tying in point. | | The bottom ¼ of most cock saddle feathers and some cock cape feathers has some “basal fluff”. On the larger size feathers this can be used for short tails in the same way as marabou. On the shorter feathers this fluff can be cut off and dubbed onto the silk to form a soft body, ideal for making nymphs. | | Game bird feathers used as soft hackles are usually tied in by the tip. Having stroked back some fibres to expose the tip of the feather, instead of cutting the tip off square, cut a V shaped notch into it and tie the feather in with the V on top of the hook. This has two advantages. The first is that you get a bit more hackle, the second is that if your feather slips out you will still have something to tie back in with. | | Tying with peccary: soak the hairs in a glass of water before tying with them to soften them up. This prevents splitting when winding the hair. Peccary hairs are hollow, so as you wind them round a hook, the profile will flatten giving a good segmentation and pleasing colour changes. |
Small Scale Dyeing  | Mixing Your Own Dubbing  |
Techniques VIDEO CLIPS of fly tiers demonstrating a variety of techniques at recent fly shows: (NEW - Apr)
- Alice Conba on parachute hackles
- Frank Moors on tinsel bodies
- Trevor Jones on cutting the thread off at the end of a fly
- Trevor Jones on a technique for tying upwing dry flies
- Ted Patlen on divided feather fibre wings
- Mike Schmidt on married wing slips
- Alice Conba on crocheted bodies
- Wolly Bayer tying Facocchi-style flies
| | When making Wulff-style wings from deer hair or calf tails, it is often difficult to get the wings exactly equal. You may find it easier to trim a few hairs off the larger wing rather than dividing them repeatedly. | | Creating a smooth underbody on Wulff style flies: having tied the tail in, cut the butts at an angle. Once the wing is tied in, before setting the wing in position, cut the wing butts at a matching angle to the tail butts but in reverse, so that they are wrapped down, they meet and splice together with the tail butts. | | When using hackle pliers to wind a body on a fly, if you want the fibres to lie flat, remember to counter rotate the hackle pliers after every turn, to take the twist out of the fibres. | | When tying off a parachute hackle it is often difficult to be sure you have caught in the feather. After your last turn of feather, take the silk around the feather twice near to the hook then make one wrap holding both feather and silk together. Release the feather and make a second wrap with the silk. As you tighten up you will see the feather move into place and lock. Whip finish as normal. | | When winding your rib on a hackled body it is easy to trap the hackle. If this is happening, wiggle the rib from side to side as you wind it. This allows the hackles to spring out of the way and makes a neater and stronger body. | Dubbing: sparse mats of material are easier to dub onto the thread than big blobs. If you are using dubbing with a long staple (length of fibres = staple) it is much easier to add the dubbing in stages than it is to try and take off any excess. |
Tools | A film canister packed tight with wire wool is a useful way of storing and cleaning dubbling needles. Use your dubbing needle to pierce a hole in the lid and try to use the same hole thereafter. | | Look after your fly tying scissors - don't cut wire with them - tie it off tight and then wiggle the end around in circles to worry it off. | | A pen top or any smooth tube with a hole at the end makes a good half hitch tool. | | Don't drop scissors on the floor, chances are they will land point down and break or bend the point ... But if you do drop them, don't snap your legs together to try to catch them - speaking from personal experience, chances are you will impale yourself on the sharp end ... This is good advice for dubbing needles too! |
The Whip Finish Tool 
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Flies | Always carry an empty fly box when fishing so that on changing flies, put the used flies into the empty fly box and at the end of the day, empty the fly box into a wad of tissues and leave overnight to dry. The next day you can then clean them up and return them back into the main fly box avoiding rusted hooks. Paul Grourk - Member No. 13772 - NEW (Apr) | | Dry flies – Unless you are tying a specific pattern, dress all your dries with full hackles. Don't trim off any hackles until you're on the river bank and you know how low in the water the fish want the fly to sit. | | Store flies carefully, always dry them after use and never leave a wet fly box in your pocket. Fur flies such as “Zonkers” need special attention as the leather strip (skin) takes much longer to dry and will rust the hook at the tie in point and where tied off at the tail. |
Last modified on 13 April, 2013 | |
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