Playing at the Vice

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

I was just playing at the vice and put this together, which I was pleased with. It's a fairly basic wet-fly construction, though I don't know if it's an official "pattern". The dressing is :

hook: wet fly, size 12
thread: Uni 8/0 Olive (waxed with bee's wax)
tail: golden pheasant tippets
body: fibres from a golden pheasant body feather (yellow)
rib : gold wire
thorax : olive wool dubbed
wing: cock ringneck pheasant quill slips
hackle: snipe

I should have, but didn't, put some cement/glue down before wrapping the PP fibre body as these tend to be a bit on the fragile side and trout teeth can cut them easily. Still, they have a great colour to them so I use them for such things.

- Jeff

[scubatim]

Great looking fly

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Jeff,

I like it a lot! With that nice even gold rib I don't think the fragile feathers will take that much of a beating. I must say that, on my screen, the body looks brown and green with a silver rib. Those colors look pretty good too. Finally, a use for those two Golden Pheasants skins I have in a drawer.

REE

[TyroneFly]

Jeff,

Great looking fly! Curious though, did you use the bees wax to assist with the dubbing or does it change the hue or both?

[Skip48]

Very nice tie. Like it a lot.

Skip

[JeffHamm]

Thanks guys.

REE, the colours look that way on my screen too. The GP body feathers get brown towards the stem, so you get a brown "towards yellow" type of body. Also, the underside of the feather is darker; on the red feathers the underside is orangeish, so wrapping these for bodies gives great "tones" and subtle variation. I know the fish probably don't care, but they sure look good to the fisherman!

And Tyronefly, the wax does change the hue a wee bit (more so with silk thread), but it also can keep the thread from slipping on the hook when tying, so if you tie in a couple tight wraps to hold marterial in place, they often seem to hold a bit better. Also, the wax hardens a bit so it sort of works like glue to hold the fibres down. It's not really necessary, but I sometimes like to use it. Generally the wool dubs fine without it.

- Jeff

[kelkay]

Excellent looking fly, great job!