Good Thread and thanks for the tip above. I have been struggling with Madam X's and getting things to stay. I have one early tie of the Madam I call the Amityville Horror because the head likes to spin around! LOL. Hopefully the fish will have some sympathy as mentioned above. This has given me a couple of good ideas to improve!Originally Posted by PAangler
Good Tying and Good Fishing!
Bob
On some flies I also have problem with the head spinning.
To solve this I put a layer of head cement or nail polish on top of the thread-wrapped hook. I let this dry before finishing the tie.
Ed
" Fishermen, hunters, wood choppers, and others,
spending their lives in the fields and woods,
in a peculiar sense a part of Nature themselves,
are often in a more favorable mood for observing her,
in the intervals of their pursuits,
than philosophers or poets even,
who approach her with expectation."
Henry David Thoreau
Funny isn't it?
Fishing Bill's former problem is like so many in fly tying, you are missing just one small piece of information and it ruins everything. Fix that one flaw and BINGO! When I first tried to use fur dubbing many years ago, my fly bodies looked like they had been tarred and feathered no matter what I did. I went to our local fly shop and complained about my problem and one of the hangers-on simply said "pinch the snot out of the fur when you roll it on the thread." Problem solved. One small piece of information fixed everything. 8T
Fishing Bill's former problem is like so many in fly tying, you are missing just one small piece of information and it ruins everything. Fix that one flaw and BINGO! When I first tried to use fur dubbing many years ago, my fly bodies looked like they had been tarred and feathered no matter what I did. I went to our local fly shop and complained about my problem and one of the hangers-on simply said "pinch the snot out of the fur when you roll it on the thread." Problem solved. One small piece of information fixed everything. 8T
Yep. It's a little like that word "sparse".
I don't know why I still refuse to "half" most everything (dubbing especially) yet wonder why the flies look so cluttered!
It hurts to find/admit you're really that stubborn...
I'll fix it. I'm getting too d**m old not to!
Jeremy
Hi,
For me it''s the hackle on spiders. If I've not been tying them for awhile it takes me ages to get back to just one turn of hackle. And then I wonder why they look too front heavy? When I finally can convince myself to do it the way my brain knows it should even though my head tells me to wrap twice, they start to look better. After tying them for years, I've only recently tried stripping one side (and that really improves the look of some of the larger fibred hackles, like hen pheasant or grouse). I've read this tip over and over but my head tells me I'm wasting good material.
Of course, in the end, the fish have taken flies tied every which way, so both my head and my brain need to listen to the fish more than the fisherman!
- Jeff
Which is why some of us have signatures ....
The fish are always right.
Try taking one wrap of thread around just the hair to bundle it together then tie it down with tight wraps of thread. If the wing sticks up too much make some looser wraps towards the rear until the hair lays down at the angle you want it too. The only disadvantage with wrapping the hair first is that the wing may not hang down on each side as far as you would like, but on small flies, especially Al Campbell's Too Simple Caddis it works for me.
Good Luck, Tight Lines,
John
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