Welcome to Beginning Fly Tying

Part Seventeen


Bluegill


An Introduction to Fly Tying:

Turkey Flats and Hackle Tip Wings

By Al Campbell


How are your tying skills coming along? Do you realize how far you've progressed since we started this series? Hopefully you've been practicing enough so that each new challenge is easier than you thought it would be. This session, we'll start with something familiar and progress to a new challenge.

We've already tied a standard dry fly, split tails a couple of ways and tied a thorax fly. What if we tied a fly that has a split tail, hackle trimmed like a thorax fly and a thorax fly wing, but positioned the wing and hackle closer to the front of the hook like it is in a standard dry fly? Would that be considered unconventional? Of course it would, but then again, I'm a little unconventional anyway, so let's do it.

If you look at a real mayfly, you'll notice that in some species of mayflies, the wings are attached forward of the regular attachment point for a conventional thorax pattern.


In others, the wings are attached to the real fly in the same place as in a regular thorax pattern.


Therefore, I tie flies with the wings attached in both places so I can match the hatch of the day.

I guess I prefer to match the hatch more than I prefer to be conventional. Our first fly this week is an unconventional twist on the conventional thorax fly. It uses a conventional wing and tail, but the wing and hackle are moved forward slightly to match those mayflies with forward attached wings.

Conventional thorax flies use turkey flats for wings.


Notice that the top of the flat is flat? That's how the feather gets its name. This type of feather forms a nice wing with the tips of the wing being flat, just like in the feather.

List of materials: Gray Dun

  • Hook: Standard dry fly; Mustad 94840, Tiemco 100, Eagle Claw L059, Daiichi 1180. Size 10 - 22.

  • Thread: 6/0 to 10/0 Gudebrod or equivalent, color to match body or black.

  • Body: Angler's Choice pure silk dubbing, mink under-fur, muskrat under-fur, or any other synthetic or natural fine dubbing. Color to match the body of the insect you want to imitate.

  • Wing: Turkey flat - either a cluster of fibers from a flat, or the center of the feather. Try to keep the amount of wing material proportionate to the hook size. Length of the wing should be about 1 1/2 times the hook gap.

  • Tail: Hackle fibers, moose hair, any other fine, stiff hair, synthetic tailing material. Color to match the natural insect you're imitating or the hackle. (Hackle fibers work best.)

  • Hackle: Quality neck or saddle hackle, webby parts removed and 1/16" of the remaining stem stripped of barbules. Color to match natural insect or any pattern you want to tie. (In this case, a gray dun.)

    Tying steps:

  • 1. Start the thread and create a split tail. We've done this before, so I won't show you how to do it again.

  • 2. Select a cluster of fibers from a turkey flat, measure for length and tie in approximately 1/4 hook shank back from the eye of the hook.


  • 3. Trim the excess wing material and cover the ends with thread.


  • 4. Pull the wing material back and make about a dozen wraps of thread in front of the wing to keep it upright.


  • 5. Wrap the thread a few times around the base of the wing to keep it bunched together.


  • 6. Dub a body and attach the hackle, dull side forward. (I've shown you several ways to hackle a fly. You may use any of the methods, but I'm going to show the rotating hackle plier method again here).


  • 7. Dub from the head space back to the hackle, forming a smooth thorax. Leave the thread at the hackle tie-in point.


  • 8. Using a Griffin rotating hackle plier, wrap the hackle forward, back and forward again. Keep the hackle even on both sides of the wing.


  • 9. Keeping tension on the hackle, bring the thread forward through the hackle, over the hook in front of the hackle, then over the hackle tying it down.


  • 10. Trim the hackle tip, form a head, whip finish and cement. Trim the hackle flat or in a V on the bottom of the fly.


    Another popular style of dry flies uses hackle tips for wings. I'll show you one method of attaching hackle tip wings this time, and another method next time. For the gentleman who asked about gray drake patterns, this and several of the previous patterns should fill that need. Just match the body and wing colors with the appropriately colored materials and create a gray drake fly that suits your needs.

    Materials:

  • Hook: Standard dry fly; Mustad 94840, Tiemco 100, Eagle Claw L059, Daiichi 1180. Size 10 - 22.

  • Tail: Hackle fibers, moose hair, any other fine, stiff hair, synthetic tailing material. Color to match the natural insect you're imitating or the hackle.

  • Body: Angler's Choice pure silk dubbing, mink under-fur, muskrat under-fur, or any other synthetic or natural fine dubbing. Color to match the body of the insect you want to imitate.

  • Wings: Hackle tips, color to match the wings of the natural insect you want to imitate. Length of the wings should be about 1 1/2 times the hook gap.

  • Hackle: Quality neck or saddle hackle, webby parts removed and 1/16" of the remaining stem stripped of barbules. Color to match natural insect or any pattern you want to tie. (In this case, a gray dun.)

  • Thread: 6/0 to 10/0 Gudebrod or equivalent, color to match body or black.

    Tying steps:

  • 1. Create a tail of your choice, standard or split. Since this is a standard type of fly, I used a standard tail.

  • 2. Select a pair of matching hackles and measure for wing length. If you prefer, mark the stems of the feathers at the proper length.


  • 3. Turn the hackle tips so that the backs (shiny sides) face each other (curvature facing out).


  • 4. Slip the hackle tips over the hook (one on each side of the hook) dull sides facing out, and secure with two loose wraps in front of the hackle tips.


  • 5. Grasp the stems of the hackle tips below the hook and keep the hackle tips in place while you make several more loose wraps behind the hackle tips.


  • 6. Keeping the hackle tips even with each other and upright, pull the stems of the hackle tips down until they reach the right length above the hook to make the wings. Pull on the thread, cinching the hackle tips to the hook. Make several more wraps in front of and behind the wings to secure them in place, then lift the stems up under the hook and tie them off to the hook. Trim the excess stem material.


  • 7. Dub a body and attach a hackle. (Again, you can use any hackling method you wish, but I'm using the conventional method.)


  • 8. Dub a thorax. (Although dubbing a thorax isn't exactly conventional for most dry flies, I feel it makes the fly look more natural, so I use it on many of my dry flies. It's your fly, therefore it's also your choice.)


  • 9. Wrap the hackle trying to keep it relatively even on both sides of the wings. Tie off and trim the hackle, build a head, whip finish and cement.


  • 10. Your finished fly should look like this from the front. Notice how the wings are split (divided) on the sides of the hook? This is the simplest method I know to keep the wings divided and upright.


    It takes a few flies worth of practice to get the wings to do what you want them to do, so spend some time practicing. Work on proportions, tie up a few hackle tip winged flies with a thorax design, split the tails on some of them. It's always your fly, so tie it the way you want it to look.

    See ya next week. ~ Al Campbell

    Beginning Fly Tying Archives



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