Trout flies for Blugill

[Bruce Norikane]

I have been tying some " trout " flies, like a Wulff type fly without the wing, I just leave out the two feathers out of the collar because they don't last long with the bluegill. But they sure seem to work well down here for the gills when using the 4wt.
One question I have is that I seem to be putting too much palmered hackle on the fly as they seem to want to twist when casting. I am having to use 5X tippet in order to be able to tie the #14-16 size and after a few casts, the tippet is twisted up pretty badly.
How many wraps do you folks use when tying these flys? They work pretty well and I would like to use them more. Thanks and stay warm!!

Heavily hackled flies can cause twisting. Over 10 years ago, A.K. Best wrote that stiffer, genetic saddle hackles could twist leaders, even on standard patterns that didn't twist before. He found that each tiny feather barb acted like a propeller. Newer hackles had more and stiffer propellers per wrap. He did not see this problem older, less stiff saddles or with necks/capes.

His solution was to wrap saddle hackle forward then back. The reverse wrap tilted the barbs in the opposite way and so the propellers offset each other. I can't find an online quote, but Best wrote about this in Advanced Fly Tying.

Here's a similar thread on another forum:
http://littleriveroutfitters.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-15169.html

FWIW, I've only had this problem on a few flies in over twenty years of tying and using 5x or smaller tippet. But I use necks almost exclusively.

I think you can limit twisting by using fewer wraps or wrapping backwards then forwards or using softer hackle. Wulff's are designed for turbulent rivers and feature a pretty heavy hackle. You can get away with a lot less hackle on lakes.

Hope this helps,