Bruce E Harang photo

Orange Heron
created by Syd Glasso
tied by Bruce E. Harang

Materials:

 Hook:             Return loop up eye salmon, size and weight to suit
Thread:            Gudebröd 6/0, White or other light color as working thread
Hackle:            Heron grey spey hackle
First Rib:          Medium flat sliver tinsel
Second Rib:    Small oval silver tinsel - overlaid on first rib
Body:              Rear half - hot orange floss; front half - hot orange seal or substitute
Throat:             Finely penciled Teal flank
Wing:               Hot orange hackle tips
Head:              Gudebröd 6/0, Red

 Tying Instructions:

 1.         Mount an up eye return loop salmon hook in your vise.

 2.         Attach the thread at the point the wings will be tied in and wrap a smooth flat thread base to a point just above the point of the hook. If you are using an in-line rotary vise an easy method is to use one finger of your working hand as a moving thread bobbin holder and use the off hand to turn the vise while moving the thread rearward. If you start with an untwisted thread and let the bobbin hang free you will create a very thin flat thread base. I prefer to use a very light working thread such that if the materials over it become translucent in the water their colors are not muddied by a dark background.

 3.         Tie in the spey hackle by the tip, then the second rib, and finally the first rib. I tie the spey hackle and first rib on the bottom of the hook and the second rib on the lower far side of the hook. This allows the second rib to overlay the first rib easily and puts the exposed hackle stem section in front of the hook bend to protect it. Leave tag ends on these three materials that reach at least to just beyond the half way point of the hook shank or up to the starting point of the thread to provide a smooth even underbody for the floss.

 4.         Bring the thread back to the mid-point of the hook shank binding down the ribs and spey hackle. Again an easy way of creating this smooth thin flat underbody of thread with an in-line rotary vise is to use your working hand as a moving thread bobbin but this time moving forward. Tie in a length of hot orange silk floss (here Lagartun silk floss) or substitute synthetic floss by wrapping forward from the mid-point using 5 very tight turns of thread. Leave a silk tag that reaches to the starting point of the thread or longer. Note that in the picture above the first rib has moved around the shank from bottom to side. It is best to keep the ribs on the bottom of the hook shank for the most symmetrical body.

 5.         Wrap the floss back to the rear of the body and then forward to its tie in point. Of course you want to avoid tying down any of the spey hackle fibers. Unwrap 4 of the tight binding wraps used to mount the silk and then tie down both ends of the silk with a few tight wraps of thread. To create the smoothest floss body burnish the floss to smooth out and pack the silk fibers. Create a dubbing loop against the front end of the floss and then bring the thread forward to the starting point. The smoothness of the underbody is not as critical here as the front body portion is dubbed. Here the thread had not been brought completely to the front before the picture was taken.

 6.         Insert a small amount of seal dubbing or substitute (here the dubbing is SLF hot orange), spin the dubbing loop to lock the dubbing in place, pluck out any loose dubbing fibers, wrap the dubbing in touching turns to the front of the body, and tie off. Cut off any excess dubbing and loop.

 7.         Wrap the first rib forward in 5 turns and tie off. Then warp the second rib over the first rib and tie off. You have in effect overlaid the second rib on top of the first rib. This is how the ribs are mounted on the only Orange Heron I have seen actually tied by the designer Syd Glasso. In this picture the spey hackle and working thread have been removed to make the overlaid ribs easier to see.

 8.         Bring the spey hackle forward wrapping it immediately behind the first rib and tie off in the front. Cut the excess. Tie off the working thread and cut it off. Mount the red thread used to make the head (in this picture below the working thread was not removed yet when the picture was taken). Tie in a collar of 1-- 2 wraps of finely penciled teal flank. Cut off any excess teal feather.

 9.         The wing comprises two pair of hot orange hackle tips. The pairs are mounted curved toward one another to form a knife blade wing having a length longer than the body but short of the bend of the hook so that the wing can not fowl around the hook shank. The wings should be mounted low over the body (here the wings are as high as you would want and a bit lower would be better). To mount the wing take all four feathers and size them leaving the bare stems connected. Insert the four bare stems through the hook eye and position the wing base just in front of the teal collar. Tie down with several very tight thread wraps and check the wing to insure desired position. When you are satisfied with the wing position, pull the stems out of the hook eye and cut off flush with the binding wraps. Complete a small proportional head and apply head cement and gloss finish.

10.       I was not completely satisfied with the way the wings cock when mounted as illustrated above so I did some re-reading of references and in Bob Ververka’s book SPEY FLIES HOW TO TIE THEM I found an alternative method of mounting the wings. This is either the method taught to Bob by Syd Glasso or at least a method that produces a wing that is much more like the Syd Glasso style. Basically, two pair of matched wing feathers are selected. 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. Each pair is tied in as a unit in the manner of tying in a bronze mallard wing on a traditional Spey fly. 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 lower along the body of the fly and still has a knife edge profile along the top edge of the wing. A sort of deep V-hull is created upside down on the fly. 

Here the near side paired wing is mounted like a bronze mallard wing and viewed from above. The near side was used in these illustrations because I had them already prepared and ready to mount.

The same near side wing as seen from the bottom of the fly. 

In this photograph we see the near side wing feathers from the front of the fly. The tenting around the fly upper body and top of the fly can be clearly seen. 

The same near side wing feathers as seen from the far side of the fly. 

Finally the near side wing mounted and shown from the near side. 

Here is the completed Orange Heron with the wings mounted similarly to bronze mallard on a traditional Spey fly. 

This is the Hoh Spey tied by Bob Ververka in 1989 which would have been in the time frame of when he visited Syd Glasso to take lessons in tying the Glasso style of Spey fly. I apologize for the low quality of the image but it is sealed in a glass dome and I did not want to accidently damage the fly trying to remove the dome. Notice how the wing sits along the top edge of the fly body and the type of spear-like feathers used to help create the low wing profile much like a traditional bronze mallard winged Spey pattern. Also note how sparse the fly is tied to prevent it from swimming on its side from too much material on the bottom of the fly. 

This first photograph shows the rear floss portion of the body completed and the floss strand split in two ready to receive the dubbing and be twisted to lock the dubbing in. The working thread has not yet been brought to the front of the body where it will be positioned before the dubbed body is wound forward.

Here the dubbing has been twisted between the split strand of body floss, wound forward, and tied off at the front of the body. This method of applying the sparse dubbing eliminates a hump between the front end of the floss and the rear end of the dubbing. Note the hackle guard to assist in keeping the long Spey hackle fibers out of the way during the wrapping of the dubbed portion of the body.

A completed Orange Heron using the dubbing and winging methods of Syd Glasso.

© 2008 Bruce E Harang

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