Dry fly hackle - best face forward?

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Originally Posted by NJTroutbum

I tie both in dry fly fashion. Dull side forward.

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Ralph's response in his Bivisible Moose thread got me wondering. I've always tied my hackle shiny side forward, whether winding collars, palmering bodies front-to-back or back-to-front (for parachutes it's shiny side down). I know at one time it was pretty common to tie dull-side forward, before the advent of the genetic hackle we have available today. I was wondering which direction other folks are going these days on their drys?
Ralph, in no way am I criticizing your choice; it's obvious from the vid and photos that you're producing a quality fly.

Regards,
Scott

For 99% of my flies, shiny side face forward. Where I don't is when tying a Neversink Skater where 1 hackle has dull side facing forward and 1 is shiny face forward. Then push together. Another is sometimes when I tie a 'variant' I'll use a similar way of wrapping the hackles but without pushing the two together. On the former, that's how it was tied by Hewitt and Darbees. I have absolutely no idea on the latter if it makes any difference.

Funny I prefer dull side down on my parachutes.

Scott, no offense taken at all. To clarify, when palmering bodies on wet patterns,buggers etc. I tie in shiny side forward. But on dry fly collars, always dull side forward. And in a bivisible pattern the body hackle is a dry application,since its intent is to further support the fly.

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Originally Posted by Gene

I prefer dull side down on my parachutes.

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Gene,

Again, personal preference. I've found tying cup side up and starting the wraps at the top of the post, each succeeding wrap fits neatly under the one above and I can get more wraps on the post (8 in this case).

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_4447.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_4450.jpg

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j1...n/IMG_4451.jpg



Regards,
Scott

I prefer shiny side forward on catskills or flies that are hackled traditionally. I believe this is how Valla said the Dette's tied.

On parachutes, I tie dull side down. I think the curvature of the hackle helps the parachute ride a little higher than it would otherwise.

I personally feel that dull side, or more importantly "concave side" forward stands the hackle better. When tying in wet fashion, the Convex "shiny" side of the hackle is already forward, lending itself to be wrapped back into cleaner since the fibers are already naturally formed toward the bend of the hook..

Here is a comparison for comparisons sake. Shown are 2 identical patterns, tied with feathers taken off the same neck and literally next to each other from a Whiting Silver Grade neck. The fly on the left was tied in Dull-side forward. The fly on the right was tied in shiny-side forward. What I have found over the years, is that the dull side forward leaves fewer flyers toward the body, and stands the collar up a little cleaner. Which is also noticeable in the pic with this example. No manipulation was done on either fly.

Attachment 13191

Agreed, dull side forward on dries, shiney side forward on wets. I think of it as using the natural curve in the hackle to aim the barbules where I want them to go

With the improvement of hackle feathers today it probably doesn't mean as much as it did then, but when I started tying flies 35 years ago I was instructed to always have the hackle fibers curved toward the eye on dries because it helped prevent the fly from tipping over on its head.

Joe