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Fly Tying Journal Notes
A collection of helpful information and tips regarding fly tying, especially rotary fly tying. A collection of my own observations, and solutions concerning tying techniques and materials selection I have found helpful. And interesting information I have found regarding all things fly tying and fly tying materials.
Fly Tying Notes
How Do Bird Feathers Get Their Colors?
This one page Nature's Ways column from the Wildlife in North Carolina magazine is the an accurate and concise explanation of why most birds have the colors we see.
Reprinted with the kind permission of the copyright holder North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Please do not reproduce this copyrighted page without permission.
Wire & Silk floss technique for forming a body
This is a technique I developed over 20 years ago after seeing an article by Alec Jackson on tying his Pseudo Spey fly. I like the style but wanted a body that had a bit more durability while retaining some flash. I don't know if the idea was developed by others before me but I have never seen it in print. The technique is clearly described by the photographs below. The twisting of the wire and floss and the wire and herl is done exactly like you would twist a dubbing loop to lock the dubbing in. I would add that want you leave the wire a bit loose so that when you twist it with the floss or especially the herl wire doesn't cut the floss of herl. Here I have used a very thin strand of floss making the wire much more prominent so it is easier to see. However, by increasing the thickness of the floss strand you can change the amount of wire exposed and thereby the amount of flash. Likewise, here there are only a couple of herls but if you use 4 to 6 strands you will get a more dense thorax with very little flash.
Below is another wire and floss chenille body using approximately 210 denier silk floss and 6 ostrich herls with the wire.
Mounting an eye on a blind eye hook
Mounting the eye to a blind eye hook is not particularly difficult. In fact if a few simple steps are followed it is rather easy to do. When tying presentation flies a short loop tie in is adequate as the fly is not going to be tested in use. For fishing flies a loop that is tied on along the full length of the shank is the best method. This is true for both real twisted gut and synthetic braided or furled material such as braided Dacron or braided nylon (I find that the 30# size has the correct diameter for this use). So let's get started. The materials you will need are either two or three strand twisted silk worm gut or braided synthetic line, blind eye hooks, and for the braided Dacron some emulsified beeswax such as Sno-Seal brand shoe water proofing agent.
In this picture you see some three strand silk worm gut from Partridge which is a particularly well done blind eye material as well as three strand twisted gut in "stick" form from Spain. The bent piece of gut has been cut to size for the hook shown and the eye formed in the middle of the piece with two equal length legs for mounting to the hook shank.
For a presentation fly that will not be fished you can conserve gut which is expensive and hard to find in good quality by tying in the eye with legs only as long as the front initial taper of the hook, usually about 1/2 to 3/4 inch (as shown in the picture above). Thus, cut the required length of two or three strand twisted gut
We will start by mounting a real gut eye for a presentation fly. Crimp the loop shape into the length of gut by wrapping it around a bobbin tube or similar and using your thumb nail on each leg to crimp each side of the loop.
1. Mount a blind eye hook in the vise and attach the working thread with a jam knot about 1/16 inch behind the front tapered end of the shank
2. Next mount the preformed gut eye legs side by side to the bottom of the hook shank with tight flat touching thread wraps back toward the hook bend. The area of the shank covered by the jam knot will have the legs there lashed down when the wings and head are formed. As you can see the gut ends about where the front taper to the hook shank stops. To make the transition at the end of the gut less abrupt you can either chew or squash the ends of the gut legs to introduce a bit of a taper.
3. Continue wrapping flat touching turns of working thread until the complete length of the gut legs are covered and then whip finish behind the end of the legs and cut off the working thread, as here, or spiral it it back to the tie in point of the tag as is appropriate. Because the mounting method is generally only used for non-fishing flies soaking the thread and gut with an adhesive like diluted Dave's Fleximent is not necessary.
Above is a side view of the mounted gut eye and immediately below is a bottom view of the same mounted gut eye. If you look carefully you will see that I tied the whip finish know backwards leaving a visible tag. However since the body and underbody if used will cover this I find it easier to whip towards the back of the hook and keep the thread thickness to a single layer.
4. To mount a synthetic braided material eye follow steps 1 -- 3 as above. If you are tying a non-fishing fly the length of the legs is identical. If you are going to tie a fishing fly using either real gut or synthetic braided material the legs need to extend the length of the hook shank to a point approximately above the point of the hook and thus in front of any tip and tag. When you get close to the end of the legs fray the braided material at the ends to help provide a smooth transition to the hook shank. Wrap over the frayed material in touching flat thread wraps and whip finish.
5. Above is a side view after fraying the ends but before wrapping them down. Below is a bottom view. Note how the legs are side by side and on the bottom over the full length of the hook shank. You can also see that the legs are not perfectly straight and bend a bit upward in the center of the shank. This is corrected by carefully twisting to the shank bottom using a smooth flat jawed pair of pliers.
Below is the same hook viewed from the top. Note how the dark shank is running down the center of the white dacron legs for the full length of the shank.
6. The braided Dacron has been completely lashed down and the working thread whip finished and cut off. After which the thread and Dacron legs were soaked with water thin Dave's Fleximent and allowed to dry. If you are going to tie a fly immediately after mounting the eye you can leave the thread attached after whip finishing and continue after the adhesive has dried completely.
7. To make the white braided Dacron look a bit more translucent like silk worm gut rub a bit of Sno Seal or other emulsified bees wax into the eye. This also helps prevent the Dacron from fraying in use.