Technique for sparse hackle?

[gobrock]

Hey guys & gals - a fly pattern I am tying requires very sparse hackle down the body. It is a bug made of caribou hair that is very closely trimmed ( much smaller than traditional bugs) however I need very sparse hackle going full length of the body. I have tried striping one side of the hackle off but to me that?s a waste of good hackle.

The hackle needs to be very sparse as it is fished as a traditional salmon fly (just beneath the surface).

Anyone got any suggestions?

[126barnes]

Not really a waste of hackle as one quill will be used weather you used both sides or not.

Sorry but I never did find that recipe for the collinwood

[hap]

Soak your hackles in water for at least ten minutes. Hold the hackle up and gently pull down one side with a slow steady pull. What you get is a two hackles...

Wrap the hackle and counterwrap something to secure it as it is more fragile...
art

[Al Beatty]

Hi gobrock,

You already have good suggestions, I'll add just one more. Strip the fibers from one side of the feather and place those fibers in a small hair stacker. Then used the "half-stripped quill" to tie the fly. After you've tied several flies you should have quite a few stripped fibers in your hair stacker. Even the tips, remove them from the stacker and "fix them in place" using a drop of hot glue at their base end. In the future you can clip a few fibers from the glued bundle to form a tail on a dry or wet fly. Take care & ...

Tight Lines - Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[Fly Tyer]

I would agree with Barnes. I hate to waste materials aswell, and although I am better then I was before I still find it hard to throw stuff away. I found trying to save bits of stuff to use never really worked, because you get a pile of stuff that takes a while to sort through and is messy, so unless I know I will use it for a specific purpose it goes in the garbage catcher I have at my vise.

Also try to tie the fly with a full hackle... it might not make any difference. Or you can palmer the hackle up the body without stripping the fibers off but make sure you palmer the hackle very wide as to minimize the ammount of hackle on the fly. That way you dont use as much of the hackle.

I suspect you are using a long saddle hackle?

Phil

[gobrock]

Thats right Phil, Metz saddle. Going to give Arts suggestion a try, though the shaft on these saddles are very thin.

Thanks everyone!

[bugman]

i use an exacto blade to split my hackles unless they are thick quilled, if so i just soak & do as mentioned earlier