what am I doing wrong?

[hugefish_80]

I have been having quite a bit of luck lately on my local urban pond with the stocker trouts on my 4wt. So far the best results have come on a flo. pink soft hackle that we'll call the partridge and pink just to make things simple so that we can all picture the same general fly. My question is how do I get this fly to last for more than about 6-7 fish before it is completely destroyed? the first thing to go seems to be the thread wraps that make up the body of the fly. I end up fishing with a long misshapen ball of pink thread and the fish don't seem to like it as well.


Any advice? Do i just have to live with only catching a few fish on each fly?

[Eric-WD]

perhaps painting the body with sally hansons. although with the speed of tying soft hackles and the amount of fish your catching per fly it is tough to feel sorry for you.

Eric

[Kerry Stratton]

What a terrible problem to have? It has been awhile since I had to change flies because the fish tore it up. Sorry but no sympathy coming from me, only apathy.

[Panman]

Assuming you are tying your own fly and me not knowing exactly what you mean by "thread" on for the body I envision your problem could be you ain't wrapping the body tight enough or the thread is not made for the purpose you want it to do. You might be able to solve that by making sure your body is tightly wrapped, adding a tight rib or switching the body material.

Tim

[WarrenP]

You might try coating the hook shank with Sally Hanson before doing the thread body.....

[Betty Hiner]

Oh, yah. I agree that that is one terrible problem to have!

If you are using regular thread, try waxing it to add strength (bees wax, tyers wax). Or if you're using silk ... wax it with tyers wax or cobblers wax. Or try using uni stretch for the body. I think it's a bit more durable than regular thread, or floss. There's also the standard trick of counter wrapping a fine (thin) wire over the body.

[rainbowchaser]

How thick are you making the body? Wrapping from the eye towards the bend and back again to the hackle tie in should be sufficient and not leave a lot of thread to pull loose. If you want some taper tie in the hackle first and let the stem make a shoulder underneath. When you get back to the tie in point wrap the hackle for a turn or two and weave the thread through it before tying off

[Silver Creek]

Post a photo of the fly. Then we can tell you more.

Possible solutions are changing the thread body to another material such a wire body or a liquid lace body, for example. Another solution would be to use a thicker 3-0 thread coated with Sally Hansons as suggested above.

http://www.wapsifly.com/utcwire.html

http://www.uniqueflyfishing.com/inde...age=liquidlace

http://www.edgeangling.com/Uni-Threa...ahill-206.html

[JeffHamm]

Hi,

Along with the above ideas, another thing you can do is this:
1) wrap the thread from the eye to the end of the body
2) put two half hitches (the first near the bend, the next adjacent and towards the eye.
3) wrap the thread back to the front and finish (hackle and head).
4) a drop of head cement goes at the knots at the bend for extra durability.

That way, if the fish bite through the thread, only the top layer of thread comes away

This is an idea I've seen in Bill Tagg's book (The Art of Fly Dressing I think it's called) and is hard to do if the thread is on a bobbin. You have to cut your length of thread, 6 inches or so, before you start tying. Tricky, and I don't bother doing it, but thought I would pass it along for historical reasons, and you may want to give it a try.

- Jeff

P.S. Actually, it's not 2 half hitches, it's what Bill Tagg called a "double knot", sort of like whip finishing. Basically, your last two turns of the first layer over the shank are made "large" (i.e. over the shank and back around one of your fingers as well). Now, pass the thread through the loops towards the eye of the hook, and pull the loops taught. That's your double knot. It's tricky to do because you have to hold the loops on top of the shank so the body doesn't lose tension, and pulling the thread through the loops is tricky (use a crochet hook if you try it) as you can't lose your hold of the thread on the shank. Once you've pulled the loops tight, though, then you just wrap back to the head, put a double knot there, then tie in the hackle and whip finish the head.

[hugefish_80]

Wow, tough crowd. I guess the only reason that I am viewing this as a problem is because I am not used to having a fly be completely destroyed after only a few fish. I do not normally fish with soft hackles, nor do I catch trout on a regular basis. Most of the flies that I tie for crappies and bluegills are very durable in that i can often catch 40-50 decent sized fish before I have to think about my fly being too torn up to use. Anyway, I have taken some pics of the flies, 1 new one, and 2 post trout. I will probably try ribbing with a bit of silver wire and see if that helps keep the fly intact a bit longer.


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