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Black Heron Spey
Syd Glasso pattern
tied by Bruce E. Harang
Note: The following tutorial follows the manner in which Syd Glasso actually tied the tinsel rear bodied flies of his Heron series. The method was disclosed to me by Russ Osenbach who learned it from Steve Gobin. Steve Gobin in turn was taught directly by Syd Glasso.
Materials:
Hook: Salmon
Iron to suit (illustrated Partridge Bartleet Traditional Code CS10/1) -- a
currently available
hook close in style to the Sealey hook
used by Syd Glasso is the Alec Jackson Low Water Dee hook
Thread: Gudebröd
6/0, BCS 107 White as working thread
Rear Body:
Flat silver tinsel covering slightly less than half the shank
Hackle:
Gray Heron substitute, here Whiting Spey hackle dyed Heron Gray
Rib: Silver
Oval Tinsel, size to suit
Spey
Front
Body: Black Seal or substitute (here SLF
black) covering slightly more than half the shank
Throat Hackle: Natural Guinea Fowl flank
Wings:
Gray or Black goose shoulder strips or full chicken cape feathers (here Whiting
cock cape
feathers dyed
black)
Head: Gudebröd 6/0,
BCS 118 Black
Tying Instructions:
1. Mount an up eye return loop salmon hook in your vise.
2. Attach the working thread at the rear of the hook shank just in front of the hook point. White thread is used here because silver tinsel will be used and white will help to hide any tiny gaps in the tinsel portion of the body.
3. Tie in the flat tinsel by a tapered end and bring the thread forward to a point one flat tinsel width in front of the hook point.
4. Tie in the Spey hackle stem on the bottom of the hook shank at the point where the second wrap of flat tinsel will start with a single turn of thread leaving a butt long enough to extent to the front of the flat tinsel body section. Preferably your hackle is dense enough that you can strip one side of the feather. With the butt of the feather down and the good side of the feather facing you strip off the fibers facing toward the rear of the hook and then tie in with the remaining fibers pointing toward the right or eye of the hook.
5. Tie in the oval tinsel on the far side bottom of the hook shank next to the Spey hackle tie in point and then remove the metal tinsel from the core and cut off this metal tinsel leaving only the oval tinsel core and the Spey hackle stem to be tied in.
6. Tie down the oval tinsel core and the Spey hackle butt with the tying thread as you return the tying thread forward to the front of the flat tinsel body section.
7. Wrap the flat tinsel forward in touching turns taking one wrap behind the Spey hackle and oval tinsel tie in points and then as the second turn of flat tinsel starts on the bottom of the hook shank cross in front of the oval tinsel and Spey Hackle feather continuing forward in touching turns to the point where the thread waits. Tie off the flat tinsel and break off the excess, do not cut with scissors. Notice that the tinsel is not deformed out of round by the hackle stem and oval tinsel core tied on the bottom side of the hook.
8. Form a dubbing loop with the thread and wax the two thread legs of the loop, add dubbing by first spinning a small amount of dubbing on just one side of the dubbing loop, then put the rest of the sparse amount of dubbing in the dubbing loop and twist to tighten the dubbing loop. Make sure to taper the front and rear ends of the dubbing loop create a smooth transition from the flat tinsel body to dubbed body and from the dubbed body to wing mounting point. Alternatively, you can split the single strand of working thread to create the dubbing loop.
9. Wrap the oval tinsel forward in 5 turns with the first turn crossing over the top of the Spey hackle stem to prevent the Spey hackle stem from being cut by the edge of the flat tinsel and tie off on the bottom of the hook shank immediately in front of the body.
10. Wrap the Spey hackle forward immediately behind and tight against the oval tinsel to the front of the body, take a wrap of thread over the Spey hackle stem crossing on the bottom of the hook shank, then finish with 1 or 2 wraps of Spey hackle right in front of the body and tie off on the bottom of the hook shank. This single wrap of thread at the end spiral hackle wraps prevents the hackle from sliding back away from the back edge of the oval tinsel.
11. Strip one side of the natural guinea fowl flank feather and tie in on the bottom of the hook shank. Take 1.5 turns of natural guinea fowl flank feather and tie off on the top of the hook shank. Tying off on the top of the hook helps provide support for the setting of the wings so that they are a bit easier to mount canted over the top of the hook.
12. Pull the Spey hackle fibers and the natural guinea fowl flank fibers down toward the bottom of the hook so that there is virtually no hackle on the top of the hook. This helps in mounting the wing to sit low in the style and form of the traditional Spey fly bronze mallard wings.
13. The wings are basically, two pair of matched full hackle feathers, each pair being tied in as a unit in the manner of tying in a bronze mallard wing on a traditional Spey fly . One pair is a right and one pair is a left. That is one pair will naturally arc downward when placed on the near side of the hook and the other pair will naturally arc downward when placed on the far side of the hook. . The far side pair of wing feathers being tied in first such that they are mounted on the side and tent over to the center top of the fly. The near side pair of wing feathers are then tied in similarly on the near side of the hook. This produces a wing that sits low along the body of the fly and still has a keel-like edge profile along the top edge of the wing exactly like the traditionally mounted bronze mallard wing on a traditional Spey fly. This winging method may also be found in Bob Veverka’s book SPEY FLIES, HOW TO TIE THEM.
The far side mounted wing viewed from the far side.
The far side wing mounted and viewed from the near side.
Both wings mounted viewed from the near side. A proportional head formed and the thread whip finished and cut off.
A top view of the mounted wings showing the boat hull shape typical of Spey fly wings.
The finished fly with the head having head cement and finishing coatings applied.
I wish to thank Russ Osenbach for his help and kindness in providing me with the information about the tying methods used by Syd Glasso and for his willingness to share and help preserve a valuable part of our fly tying heritage.