ribbing a woolly worm... fast or slow wrap?

When it comes to counterwrapping over the palmered hackle of a woolly worm (or bugger for that matter), there seem to be a couple of approaches:

1) Some instruct to jiggle the rib back and forth as you wrap so as avoid catching the hackle barbs under the wire.

2) Some (perhaps those with rotary vises) instruct to spiral through the hackle as fast as possible so as not to catch any barbs.

I have tried both with some success. For the life of me, #2 works, but I can't figure out why. It does not seem intuitive to me.

Anywho, which approach do you take? Are you successful?

Thanks,

Peter F.

Peter,

Wrapping the (fine) ribbing under steady tension will result in most of the hackle fibers yielding. Generally works fine, except when the hackle barbs lean back over the body to a significant degree. In that case you likely end up trapping your fair share of barbs.

Cheers,
Hans W


------------------
=== You have a friend in Low Places ===
http://www.danica.com/flytier

I'm not that experienced a tyer. However, I have a rotary vise (a Danvise), and when ribbing over a woolly worm or bugger, I use the rotary and jiggle the ribbing as I go. Everything I do in fly tying is pretty slow. But it seems to work.

I really like those baby buggers, and have purchased materials specifically so I can tie them.

Hi Peter, RW here,

I tied up a few wooly worms in yellow, black and olive at last year's Danbury Show in January, simply because I didn't have any in my fly boxes and was leafing through one of my books looking for something different to tie. Dumb reason, since I never fished one of them all season. Wooly worm has been around awhile. I use the steady tension, jiggle method that Hans described and am a slow tier by nature, but a good hackle will easily snap, crackle and pop it's way to a standing position as you counter wrap the wire anyway. Any fibers that you catch and trap with the thread are easily eliminated with a small tweezer after the fly is finished...not that it really matters to the fish. But yes, I go slow to answer your original question.

------------------
"We fish for pleasure; I for mine, you for yours." -James Leisenring on fishing the wet fly-

Peter,

I think this is an example of "different strokes for different folks." Depending on the tying instructor or the book we learned from, most of us have developed a preference for one method over the other. This choice also seems to be highly dependent on the type of vise the tyer uses. At any rate, we learn to make our chosen method work by continued practice.

I'm a slow wrapper with lots of wiggling during the counterwrapping process. I have recently purchased a true rotary vise and will certainly give the other method a try. 8T http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif

------------------
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.

I never used wire wrapping on a wooly worm, until I read this post and thought I'd give it a try. After trying it I'd say to use the wiggle method instead of the fast wrap method, because it's difficult to get the wire how/where you want it (spacing, tension, etc.) when trying to wrap it quickly.

I'm gonna try to fish these "hot-wired" wooly worms, now! I'll let you know how they work.



------------------
There's almost nothin' wrong with the first lie, it's the weight of all the others holdin' it up that gets ya'! - Tim

Al Campbell's Beginner Fly Tying Series, has three methods for typing the Wooly Worm Pattern, one for Dry Style and two for Wet...

[url=http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part12.html:bf698]http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners/part12.html[/url:bf698]

Well, I was able to get one of the "hot-wired" woolly worms in the water and it worked extremely well. I wasn't able to get to the water until 2:30 pm and the wind was horrible, gusting to maybe 35-40 mph. I was forced to use the spinning rig to start out and was deserate to get some crappies, I only got one and let it go back in to grow a bit. I wasn't able to get ANY keepers from the water; 2- 5 or 6" LMB, 2- 3 or 4" green sunfish, and the lone crappie.
At about 6:00 pm the wind died down enough to use the fly rod, so I changed over and moved to the known bluegill water and it began to be a much better day. I was able to get 5 keeper size gills before the light was too faint to remove the fly from the fish. All of them were caught on the blue, red-hackled, gold-wire ribbed woolly worm about 4' from shore. A very nice end to the day.



------------------
There's almost nothin' wrong with the first lie, it's the weight of all the others holdin' it up that gets ya'! - Tim

Do you mostly apply the wire for strength (durability) or looks?
....lee s.