How's my SHWAPF?

I'm learing to tie the SHWAPF from the beginners tying lessons on here. I tied a couple on sz 18 hook. I've never tied anything this small before.

Looking at my image, I obviously need to work on building heads. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif Maybe the body is too thick too, I'm not sure. The squrrel hackle seems maybe too sparse on mine.

Could I get some tips on how to do these better? I'd really appreciate it.

~Matt

Al's SCHAPF:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...hwapf91011.gif

My novice attempt http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif :

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...dog/shwapf.jpg

Hey Matt,

I'm confident your fly would catch fish.
That said, I'm equally sure that your own
critique of the fly was right on the money.
Try your own advice and see what you think.
Al's shwapf is one of those flies that is
all but impossible to tie wrong, and as Al
would be quick to tell ya, don't be afraid
to experiment and change up materials and
techniques. Nothing better than catching
fish on flies of your own tying.*G* Warm
regards, Jim

The SCHAWPF is an awesome fly to fish and tie. There are so possibilities for combinations to use http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif.

AS for your fly, I believe you assessment of the fly is probably correct, maybe a thinner body and a bit more hackle. Having said that, I agree with Jim, it will probably catch some fish http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif Since you said you have never tried anything on a size 18, I would tie some in 14's and 16's and once you feel comfortable with the results then move to an 18. Thats how I do it when tying, work the larger sizes and progress to the smaller sizes.

Keep up the good work and let us know how your flies turn out.

As a disclaimer....I am not that great at tying, but as long as my flies catch fishm then I am not too concerned http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif.

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

Hey Atomic Dog,

I did what you are doing. I started with the beginners, tied every fly there, went to intermediate and tied every fly there. The information this site provides in "How To" and the step by step guiding you through it allows you to critique yourself with quite abit of accuracy. Your fly looks great. Each one you tie, you will look at and be your own worst critic.

This site is the best source for learning how to tie flies bar none. The people here are the best and will always answer all your questions.

After reading rookies post and my previous post, he is right...you should be your own worst critic. As I stated earlier, your fly will catch fish. I also reread your post as well. As for what you might do differently....yes your assessment that the head is too big might be right (proboably used to tying larger flies I would guess and I have some similar experience in that department LOL). The other thing is to try to get the "hackle" evenly dispersed around the entire fly (top, bottom, and sides).

My best advice to is keep tying the SCHAWPF and and as you progress you will the fly easier to tie and you will like the results more. If you saw some of my fist results on flies I learned to tie here, you would laugh also. My sparkle duns/comparaduns still leave a lot to be desired but they are at least a bit better than my first attempts.

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Take care everyone and cya around. Mark

Don't ask us. Ask your fish.

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"Just when I've caught a nice trout and feeling very proud of my fly fishing ability, my feet fly out from under me and there I sit, wet, flustered and properly humiliated by the Fly Fishing gods."
Jimmy Moore, "Taken Down a Notch or Two"

What size thread were you using? Maybe try the next size down. Dropping from 3/0 to 6/0 makes a big difference in the size of the head. Even dropping from 8/0 to 6/0 can make a very noticeable difference.

Another thing to try is simply to focus on using fewer and fewer wraps of thread to hold things in place. It doesn't take much and I know my first flies had way more than they'd ever need (I was probably the worst offender ever of the too-many-wraps problem).

I count 7 widths of thread at the head (nice crisp picture by the way!). See if you can do it in 3 or 4.

SHWAPF version 2.0

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b3...g/shwapf02.jpg

More hackle = better looking fly, I think. And I used olive dubbing on this one. Body is still too thick. I switched to a thinner thread to make tying the head a bit easier. Still needs work, though. I can't seem to use 8/0 thread without breaking it at least once per fly. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif

I'm going to take MarkKillam's advice and move up a couple hook sizes to get the technique down a bit. My pudgy sausage fingers don't work so well on stuff this small yet.

Thanks for the critique all, it's nice to have another set of eyes to help give direction sometimes.

I also think it will catch fish, so no need to use the tool I usually have close at hand when trying a new pattern -- a razor blade to salvage the hook. http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/wink.gif

I have to tie a lot of tiny flies out here, with a #18 hook being a fairly large one for me. Coming from this direction, a couple of tips that may help:

(1) Dub your thread very sparsely. That way you can build your body with multiple wraps if needed, rather than being forced into a large body with a single wrap.

(2)Experiment with using a Matarelli whipping tool to build your heads. It gives lots of control and the fly is complete whenever you have reached the head size you want

In dubbng a thread sparsly, I found that if I try and just color the thread with dubbing, it is better. To achieve this end, I pull out my dubbing, and spread it thin enough that I can easily read through it, as if I almost have no dubbing at all. That has been what works for me. Other than that, I like #2 better.

Brian

I tied about 40 SHWAPF's and some were very fat, some to little hackle. I just keep tying them until I was happy at how they looked. Then I did the ultimate test..I took them fishing. I caught plenty of fish the day I went. So now I am sending some to a friend in Canada for him to try when the lakes thaw. Maybe Canadian fish are as blind as Arkansas fish, who knows. LOL I did start with larger hooks and worked my way down. Whenever you are happy then they are perfect. Good luck.

Jim

I am tying more too, because I am going to Tennessee in June and I want to see if they work there.

Jim, where in Tennessee will you be in June and when are you coming up?

Ed

I just tied the SHWAPF for 2001 FOTW Swap. I posted some lessons learned from tying them on the swap board. I had the oppesite problem from you with the squirrel hair, I felt like I was using too much. For what it's worth, here are my helpful hints:

In case anyone is interested in tying the SHWAPF, here are some things I figured out along the way that made it much easier.

Use less hair than you think you need (I still didn't get used to this after tying 30 of them so mine have too much).

Lay a base of thread back the barb and coat it with cement.

Tie in the hair starting at the barb and warp forward to the tie in point behind the eye. This is a secret I learned from a local tier. Wrapping forward to the eye instead of back to the bend greatly reduces twisting.

Now dub back to the barb and wrap the thread forward as a rib.

When you bring the hair forward and tie it down, then fold in back to form the hackle press down on the hair on top of the hook with your thumbnail to make it spread, then smooth it down on the sides of the hook to form a nice collar. Repeat the thumbnail, smoothing process as many times as needed to form a nice collar before tying down the collar. You can adjust the collar a little before you apply the head cement.

P.S. I used 8/0 thread and I felt like the heads came out pretty good.



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Fish more, work less!

Hey Atomic,

It'll take awhile to get used to smaller thread, but you can try this, get some 14/0 Gordon griffith's, tie with that for awhile then that 8/0 will seem like rope and you won't break it. LOL.

I use the GG exclusively and it's a great thread, and it's quite strong, probably close to the 8/0 actually so maybe try some of that trico thread first....

Jeff