What dry flies for my box

[Heritage-Angler]

afishinado wrote

True HA. Many of the commercially tied flies are way too fat and the wing is way too full. Thinnner and sparser is better IMO. To prevent the fly body from being too robust to match the naturals, I tie in the deer hair tips backwards from most tyers - tips facing the rear like a caddis wing. After it is sucured, I wrap behind the wing and add a little dubbing to prop it up. This way of tying also stops the wing from angling forward over the hook eye and creates a slimmer body profile.

Afish - This was the way I used to do it up until about 10 years ago, when I stumbled on something that works better.

After covering the shank with a nice tight thread base, tie in the tails, and advance the thread to the tie down point for the wing. I use a fairly sparse clump of deer hair (stacked for even tips), measured to be one shank length long, and tie it in with the butts facing the rear. I'm a righty, and I hold the clump by the tips in my right hand, and use my left to wrap the clump in. I keep a tight pinch on the clump as I do this, and use three wraps right on top of each other, gradually increasing in tension. Then I move the thread back one thread width and do this again. The resulting tie down is only two thread widths wide.

Then, I release the tips, and pull up the butts (gently) with my left hand. Cut the butts at a 45 degree angle to the shank, so that the butts taper down to the rear. Grasping the tips with my right hand again, I wrap the remaining butts tightly until they're completely covered. At this point, the tips will be bound very tight, and won't move. The angled cut makes a nice slender abdomen easy, and the narrow tie down makes for a proportionall thorax as well. Put a tiny drop of cement just on top of the tie in wraps.

Here's the "trick" part. I wrap the thread back to the rear of the shank, then dub the body up to the front of the thread tie down for the wing, and unwrap the last dubbed turn of thread.

At this point, the deer hair is pointing almost straight out from the eye. Lift the tips up, and take a half hitch tool, and push it over the eye, "creasing" the hair back. When you remove the half hitch tool, the hair should stand upright on it's own. The half hitch tool makes a better "crease" in the hair than just using your thumb nail.

Now wrap the last turn of dubbing tight behind the wing, and place another turn tight in front of the wing. Continue dubbing up to one hook eye length from the eye, and then wrap a neat head with thread only, and whip finish.

Using your fingers pinching the wing in front and back, fan out the wing just a bit more than 180 degrees.

Using this technique results in a wing that doesn't "creep" to the rear or the front - it stays upright. This also results in a fly that is pretty much bomb proof - you'll lose it before it falls apart.

H.A.

 

[David]

Heritage-Angler wrote:

Afish - This was the way I used to do it up until about 10 years ago, when I stumbled on something that works better.

After covering the shank ...

H.A.

I would love to see a video of that technique if you have one!!

 

[delkins]

Word! Big ups to comparaduns. They're super-effective, easy to see, and relatively easy to tie, IMHO.
-Dave

 

[Rkey530]

I'd say CDC elk hair caddis: Dubbed body, CDC underwing, yearling elk overwing done. Easy to tie, float well, very effective size 18 and 20 seem to work well.

Snowhsoe emerger: Trailing antron shuck, pheasant tail body, whitish snoshoe hair wing tied so it lays over the body and green or yellow dry fly dubbing ahead of that to the eye. Curved dry fly hook size 18 or as needed.

Early season black stonefly: Black dry fly dubbing for the body, optional dark dun or black CDC underwing, waffle pattern plastic overwing, dark dun, grizzly, or black hackle.

All 3 are easy and fairly quick to tie.

 

[flipnfly]

i would add another fly that is not a dry but an emerger tied in various color patterns is the flymph..... well i call it a flymph its an emerging nymph that has a smallbunched up tuft of dubbingwhere the wing case should be that has floatant applied to it but you put it on just the tuft ok so i cant find a pic but its kind of like the rs2

edit :

i found a pic the only difference is that i use hackle to represent legs i tie them in olive and lt.grey or off white browns and all greys but can be adjusted tot he hatch colors in your area

 

[afishinado]

Heritage-Angler wrote:

afishinado wrote

True HA. Many of the commercially tied flies are way too fat and the wing is way too full. Thinnner and sparser is better IMO. To prevent the fly body from being too robust to match the naturals, I tie in the deer hair tips backwards from most tyers - tips facing the rear like a caddis wing. After it is sucured, I wrap behind the wing and add a little dubbing to prop it up. This way of tying also stops the wing from angling forward over the hook eye and creates a slimmer body profile.

Afish - This was the way I used to do it up until about 10 years ago, when I stumbled on something that works better.

After covering the shank with a nice tight thread base, tie in the tails, and advance the thread to the tie down point for the wing. I use a fairly sparse clump of deer hair (stacked for even tips), measured to be one shank length long, and tie it in with the butts facing the rear. I'm a righty, and I hold the clump by the tips in my right hand, and use my left to wrap the clump in. I keep a tight pinch on the clump as I do this, and use three wraps right on top of each other, gradually increasing in tension. Then I move the thread back one thread width and do this again. The resulting tie down is only two thread widths wide.

Then, I release the tips, and pull up the butts (gently) with my left hand. Cut the butts at a 45 degree angle to the shank, so that the butts taper down to the rear. Grasping the tips with my right hand again, I wrap the remaining butts tightly until they're completely covered. At this point, the tips will be bound very tight, and won't move. The angled cut makes a nice slender abdomen easy, and the narrow tie down makes for a proportionall thorax as well. Put a tiny drop of cement just on top of the tie in wraps.

Here's the "trick" part. I wrap the thread back to the rear of the shank, then dub the body up to the front of the thread tie down for the wing, and unwrap the last dubbed turn of thread.

At this point, the deer hair is pointing almost straight out from the eye. Lift the tips up, and take a half hitch tool, and push it over the eye, "creasing" the hair back. When you remove the half hitch tool, the hair should stand upright on it's own. The half hitch tool makes a better "crease" in the hair than just using your thumb nail.

Now wrap the last turn of dubbing tight behind the wing, and place another turn tight in front of the wing. Continue dubbing up to one hook eye length from the eye, and then wrap a neat head with thread only, and whip finish.

Using your fingers pinching the wing in front and back, fan out the wing just a bit more than 180 degrees.

Using this technique results in a wing that doesn't "creep" to the rear or the front - it stays upright. This also results in a fly that is pretty much bomb proof - you'll lose it before it falls apart.

H.A.

Sounds good Ed, I'll give it a try.

 

[ryguyfi]

I think I need a video HA.....


I've never made a hair wing before. Might have to try some for the spring.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

ryguyfi wrote:
I think I need a video HA.....


I've never made a hair wing before. Might have to try some for the spring.

Video? Hmmmmm. Might have to give that a try sometime.

Here's a video of Hans Weilenman tying his cdc & elk.

http://danica.com/flytier/hweilenmann/cdcelk.htm

It shows a really nice way to tie in a hairwing. The technique I use is pretty much the same (but backwards).

I try not to let the hair flare beyond the axis of the hook shank. The real trick to getting a nice, upright wing is the crease from the half hitch tool. Thread or dubbing "dams" allow the wing to move back to the way you tied it on too much without it.

My "tutorial" written above sounds one heck of a lot more complicated than it actually is. :roll: