I love the looks of hair wings on Wolfe style dry flies. I tied up half a dozen and thought they looked pretty good.
I then moved on to Klinkhammer Specials. It took me a dozen of those to get them to where I was satisfied. (I admit I’m way too fussy with my tying! But now I can tie a mean Klinkhammer!) Then I tied a dozen more.
I took another look at those Wolfe type flies and am not satisfied. Nope. Not at all.
My problem is that I don’t have a good idea how ‘tall’ the wings should be. Are they tied so the hair tips are even with the hackle or are the wings longer than the hackle? If the wings are too long won’t the fly tip over under their weight? What lenght should I be shooting for? Hair tips even with the hackle look too short to me.
I know the fish don’t care and I shouldn’t either, but we all have something that we are anal retentive about!
On typical dry flies, non hairwing, I want the wings a little taller than the hackle. On hairwing dries, like the Wulffs, I still want them taller but because the hackle is usually fuller, I move the wing back along the shank a little bit. I think this compensates to balance the weight. In general I measure the wing height to be the hook length from behind eye to bend.
Questions are asked on the Bulletin Board, fly-tiers are having problems. One has the problem of running out of room on dry flies, to tie the head and whip-finish. Another has his Royal Wulffs falling over on their sides. What do all these questions have in common? The answer is proportions.
Al Campbell states in his Beginning Fly-Tying Series, Part 19-Royal Wulff Fly…“If they don’t look exactly perfect (your goal) the fish won’t mind. If the proportions are so out of balance that the fly tips over on its eye or wing, the fish will mind, so work on proportions and balance.”
The proportions are constant for all different Mayfly Patterns, no matter what size.
(from Mayfly Proportions, in the Tying Tip Archives)…
Nothing in Fly Tying is ever written in Stone, there are general rules, but after all is said and done, it is the decision of the tier to determine for themselves.
In the Universal Fly Tying Guide by Dick Stewart there is a graphic with proportions which I have also seen produced elsewhere, so I guess it is valid.
Hook shank (eye to above barb) = tail
Wing tie-in point = 3/4 shank = wing height
Hackle length = 3/4 wing height = just more (1.3?) than gap width.
Hackle tie-in is hackle length from butt.
I wonder if you would you elaborate on that point for us beginners? It’s easier for me to see that they would be more or less the same for all patterns.
The proportions charts published by various authors frequently differ. Listening to proportions ennunciated by various ‘experts’ frequently differ. Hooks manufactured by different companies differ and so do the proportions of flies tied on them. Same pattern and size flies tied by the same tier(even those we hold in esteem) often have proportions that differ. Hooks with longer or shorter shanks have different proportions. Flies with extended bodies have different proportions. Parachutes may have different proportions.
I believe the general rule about proportion is that the fly has to be balanced so that it floats(we’re talking about dry flies) the way we want it to. A ‘spider’, a ‘variant’, a ‘paradrake’, and other specific styles are balanced and yet do not conform to the specific rules of proportion often identified.
I know and greatly respect a particular well-known fly tier. If he and I were to tie the same pattern, on identical hooks, his fly would have different proportions than mine. Yet, both his fly and my fly would be balanced and float correctly.
Look to the insects on YOUR LOCAL WATERS…For the REAL Proportional info…
Most are different from species to species especially in the different stages of life a spinners wings should always be longer and such as that…I tossed those charts away long ago…
I would not use any Sulpher dry buy anyone else but me on my local waters for this very reason…the colors and proportions just would not be as to what I’ve seen on my waters…The Orange tinge that most use just is not there depending on where I’m fishing, I may use a pink hued fly or a very pale but bright yellow fly on a stream just a few miles away…to match whats really there…If I find that another requires yet another adjustment I’ll tye flies for that stream as well…I keep seporate boxes for most waters I fish…maybe I am anal…maybe I just have to much time!!..LOL
I also measure wings from the back of the eye to the bend. I do have a tendency to undersize the hackle though. That would exagerate the height of the wings.
I think what I will do is increase the size of the hackle but clip an inverted ‘v’ on the underside for the fly to rest on.
Heck, it’s not that my hairwing flies are bad, they are just not consistantly ‘purdy enuff’ for me!
I fish for fun and I tie for fun. My buddy ties without caring what the flies look like, knowing they will catch fish anyway, and they do. He has flyfished all his life.
Me…4 years. He outfishes me with his ugly flies 2 out of 3 times!
So if I’m not going to catch as many fish I want to not catch as many fish with a great looking fly! Know what I mean?
I really like the proportions used on the Dette gauge supplied awhile back by RonMt.
Basically, when using a TMC 100 hook, the wing height is hook shank length plus the eye. The tails are the same.
The hackle would be about hook shank length, I guess. I’ve notice that the Griffin hackle gauges that you can put on the stem of your vice give the same measurement as the Dette gauge.
I re-read your comment about proportions and later I happened across the fly in the archives, the Hair-wing Royal Coachman aka ‘the Quack’ that you did a piece on. Found it hard to reconcile your comment versus the proportions on that fly, which I think you tied.
What am I missing and how do you reconcile the wing height?
I ran into a similar problem and posted the same question and got the same answers about a year ago. The answers were and are again really helpful, but what really helped me was to tie a bunch of cahills and hendricksons to get my proportions and techniques down. Calf hair is comparatively heavy and leaves less margin for error than feather winged flies which don’t tip as easily. I still made mistakes which were neccessary for the learning process, and was still able to use the flies, so I didn’t get as frustrated. I still struggle if I haven’t tied wulffs in a while, but if I think to tie a couple of hendricksons or cahills to “warm up” it goes better.
