This famous method of making dry flies was
invented by Jacques P. Herter. Fluttering
wing wet bass flies were made before this
with the wings at the rear of the hook but
never dry flies. This method consists of
making the head of the dry fly at the rear
or the bend of the hook rather than at the
front of the hook. Thus your hackle is at
the rear or the bend of the hook instead of
the front. This does several very important
things. First, it makes your dry fly float
much higher than if you put the hackle at
the front of the fly as it supports the hook
at the heaviest part of the hook, the bend,
and keeps the bend of the hook from sinking
into the water and getting a weight leverage
that sinks your fly or puts it in a very unnatural
cocked upward position which is not at all good.
Secondly with the Jacques P. Herter method the
hackle covers the bend of the hook making the
fly appear much more natural to the fish.
When Jacques first developed these new dry flies
I did not use them for quite some time. I was
very much used to dry fly fishing with dry flies
with the hackle on the front of the flies and I
had to be shown definitely that Jacques' were
better before I would switch to them. After
about two weeks of dry fly fishing with Jacques
and having him badly beat me every day I decided
to switch to his dry flies. I have never used
anything else since in this type of dry fly as
they are much easier to fish and produce many
more fish. ~ George Leonard Herter (1961)
Credits: from Fly Tying, Spinning and Tackle Making by
George Leonard Herter.
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