How's my SHWAPF?

[jim635]

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.

[EdD]

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

Ed

[RickB]

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.



------------------
Fish more, work less!

[Jgoding]

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