Spruce Fly SBS

[ScottP]

The streamer, not the bug. Tied these up to throw at runners coming up out of Hebgen a few years ago, but we hit a warm spell and had to resort to other means. Fun fly to tie; dug out my copy of Jack Dennis Western Trout Fly Tying Manual for a refresher.

hook - Mustad 3665A #6
thread - UTC 140 black
tail - peacock swords
rib - gold wire
abdomen - floss red
thorax - peacock herl
wing - 2 saddle hackles badger
hackle - badger


Part 1



mash barb and start thread at 50% mark





tie in wire rib





tie in peacock sword fibers (4)





trim sword butts and return thread to 50% mark





wrap floss forward; good luck keeping that stuff under control to lay down a smooth body





want a thin body on this one so just one layer of floss (thank goodness)





wrap wire rib forward and tie off





trim tips on a bunch of peacock herl fibers





tie peacock in





leave bobbin hanging at tie in, grab peacock herl

[ScottP]

Part 2



twist herl around thread






and wrap forward






tie peacock off, leave about 2 hook eye distance to the front






tie in a pair of badger saddle hackle feathers






prep another badger saddle feather






and tie it in by the tip






wrap saddle hackle forward, brush fibers back






whip finish and brush the head with Sally (lacquer would give that Hotblack Desiato stuntship finish if you're of a mind); hackle's a bit short here but my supply of badger is a bit sparse






hairwing variation and a thicker body (fox squirrel tail for the wing, furnace hackle)





Regards,
Scott

[Hans Weilenmann]

Hi Scott,

Nicely presented, and thanks for sharing.

You interested in some constructive criticism, or prefer not?

Cheers,
Hans W

[ScottP]

You interested in some constructive criticism, or prefer not?

Cheers,
Hans W

Hans,

Absolutely. Any and all welcome. Streamers are not my best.

Regards,
Scott

[Hans Weilenmann]

Scott,

Let me start by saying again - the entire streamer is more than competently tied. The comments below are guidelines how you can make it better.

The area which is screaming out for some attention is the abdomen. Fix that and the entire streamer will look much better.

The ribbing is not even, but I know you can fix that yourself easily enough. It is the floss part where the big improvements can be made.

Here is a text I wrote, many moons ago, on the subject:

===

There are no secrets to a 'perfect' floss body, but there are quite a few things to keep in mind for the process of getting close


First and foremost, the underbody has to be _level_! Without this your ship has already sunk before it has touched the water.


Floss is easily soiled and frayed. Maintain dry, clean and 'soft' hands. Or wear silk glove liners when handling/wrapping floss. (Some of the finest classic salmonfly dressers do, so do not feel you are a wimp. Just wear 'm!)


Floss comes in single and multi-strand. Always wrap single strand, even if that means separating the four strand version.


As you wrap the floss, take care to avoid any twisting of the strands.


Make an even number of layers of floss, Usually two, but you could do more. I.e. start close to the eye of the fly and wrap towards the bend, and then back up. This avoids the lump, which invariably marks the start
of a single layer floss approach.


Make sure the floss body is "butted" at the bend of the hook by another material to stop the strands from sliding beyond the point you want the floss section to end.


Floss consists of multiple filaments. This is bad news and good news. The bad news is that the filaments have the tendency to slide over one another. The good thing is that the filaments have the tendency to slide over one another


Floss bodies need to be wrapped with consistent and fairly firm pressure. When wrapping you try to make the body as even and level as possible. The fine-tuning comes next!


If you wrap the floss too tight, the filaments will not budge and the fine-tuning process (or more precisely the burnishing process) will fail as the individual strands will not move..


Use a burnishing tool to 'rub' the last imperfections away, to smooth out any minor lumps or level any small depressions. Please note this is a fine-tuning exercise, the very last step. It will not work its magic if the starting point is severely flawed to start with!

===

When you look at the relevant steps before you started wrapping the floss, note that the underbody is not level. The tailing material does extend all the way to the thorax so that is good, and it looks like you kept that on top of the shank = level top. The ribbing material does not run all the way to the thorax from what I can see. Either that or you did not manage to keep the wire in a straight line. Same with the floss you tied in. It looks like it runs all the way to the thorax, though I cannot be fully certain, but in any case it did not run straight. Note the dent in top a little bit up from the tail. I would recommend you tie it in at the thorax point, run it down to the bend and back up again, not the single layer you have.

All this may sound very pedantic, but floss bodies and tinsel bodies - they are totally unforgiving. If you do not manage to keep the underbody completely level, you paint yourself into a corner.

Once you have the underbody level, refer back to the floss comments above. Get yourself a burnishing tool. A very decent burnishing tool, at little expense, is a smoothly polished straight glass rod.

Cheers,
Hans W

[ScottP]

Hans,

I believe I will print this off and put it on my tying table. Thanks so much for the advice and, again, it's very good to see you back here.

Regards,
Scott