Almost all the spinners I tie, are tied using a synthetic for the wings. Since re-acquainting myself with Caucci and Nastasi, I tied one their style. This one has the egg sack as well.
Anyone else use the “compare spinner” method?
Thanks,
Byron
Your example is not as Caucci has his spinners tied.
Yes Byron, they are effective, just not sure they are anymore effective than a z-lon spinner. The one thing I don’t like is they can twist a tippet real fast.
Gene
As laid out in their book “Hatches”, they describe a couple methods as shown in their book below.
I do not prefer the clipped top and bottom method. I think it is too bushy and leaves coloration below the thorax.
So, I decided to tie mine using the figure 8 method described in their book.
Byron, that’s a really cool looking little fly. Reminds me of how much I need to refine my Trico’s for next summer. I like the larger thorax as you’ve shown too.
Now I’ve got to work on my nemesis - visibility - to go along with tiny sizes. Always troubling for this boy.
Jeremy.
I know what you mean. Unless I see them coming down onto the water, they are hard to spot.
Yes Byron I have, but not knowing they were. Of course with different insects here I used different colour schemes, but that method I have used. One result of it is that your fly will ride very slightly higher in the water. This is great when the spinner fall is in the pool you are fishing, but I have come across occasions when the spinner fall has taken place in a pool further up stream and the fish are feeding on insects that are drifting down to them. Then the poly wing spinner has scored over this in that it is a little more awash. Sometimes a drowned spinner is even better.
In tying your fly you have succeeded with something I have always found difficult. Keeping the size of dubbing ball for the egg sack in proportion. That is an effective way to split tails. However, I was shown another method many years ago by Marc Petitjean, that I have used and adapted ever since. Tie in your tail atop the hook shank as normal, and split it using a length of doubled thread or floss. The thread is looped around the hook bend brought up between the tails and tied to the top of the hook shank with a couple of turns of thread, just tight enough to let you pull the floss. As you pull the floss the tails will split wider apart. If you use a floss an appropriate colour for an egg sack then you get the egg sack imitation “for free”. If you like I will press gang my lodger into taking some photos of this for you later (when he wakes up!)
At the time that I came up with this I was teaching a friend, Geoff, to fly fish. We went to the River Ribble for a day and came upon rising fish. He tried his favourite Griffith’s Gnat and various other flies with no success. I studied the water while he did this. They were feeding on spinners falling further up stream. I tied on a spinner from my box and started to catch. I had a dozen of the new design in a 35mm film tub in my pocket. He said he didn’t have any spinner patterns, so I handed him the tub of new ones saying, “Try one of these.” He proceeded to out fish me 2 or 3 to 1. Would he give me back any of the new spinners? What do you think, of course not! Other than the egg sack the flies we were using were the same. Now all my spinners come with an egg sack.
Cheers,
A.
I like tying a thin strip of foam onto the hook at the hackle point, wrap back towards the bend. hackle back over the foam towards the eye. pull the foam over the hackle and tie it down. trim the bottom of the hackle. now you have the wings, and…using the right colors of foam… a higher visibility spinner due to the little dot.
AlanB,
Thanks much! I have tried the Pettijean method. I believe he has a video of it.
Very interesting points and the story!!
Thanks again.
Byron -
Yes, I tie virtually all of my spinners this way, more or less, and have been for many years. Although it is much easier and faster to tie wings with synthetics, such as z-lon, I don’t like the way they mat after getting wet, so I most often use a good quality stiff white or cream hackle for my spinner wings.
After wrapping several hackle turns close together, sometimes wrapping in a figure eight to splay them, I then pinch the barbules with my thumb and forefinger on the top and bottom of the hook shank to get them in a horizontal plane as much as possible. Next, I take several figure eight wraps with my tying thread around the hackle, to pull as many of the barbules as possible to the each side, before clipping the remaining barbules from the top and bottom, and completing the dubbed body and thorax.
These spinners have been extremely effective for me, they are very durable, and float well - what more could one ask?
A.K. Best advocates tying spinners this way.
Datus Proper also gave kudos to the design.
byron,
i use snowshoe for the wings on my spinners, most times the whole pattern except for the tail is snowshoe. tie them in size 18 to 8. the larger being a green drake spinner. floats like a cork
John,
I have done that as well. I was just posting this particular version as I am reading Caucci and Nastasi’s little Streamside guides “Compara hatch”
How about posting a pic of your snowshoe spinner?
Thanks, Byron
I always called them “hackle wing spinners”, but yes, I tie them and like them. They offer a couple of advantages from my perspective.
First, you can get a wider wing profile which better matches some spinners such as the trico spinner in the following picture. The wings on most are other tying styles are too narrow especially at the base of the wing, IMO.
Second, you can leave the hackle untrimmed on top for better visibility. This helps a lot with my old eyes when trying to track small, low floating spinners in low light conditions where you typically find spinner falls. If you feel it’s necessary, you can easily trim the top hackle on stream.
Good points John.
Thanks
just for clarification. In the pic below. Left is Compara spinner with top and bottom trimmed; middle is Compara spinner with figure 8 around hackle; and right is using widow web for wings.
byron,
ill try and post a pic of my green drake spinner, but it will take a while , im not much on computor skills.
Slightly off/on topic. Since my post disappeared, I’ll try again. I have tied some spinners parachute style, clipping the hackle fore and aft, leaving the post for visibility. The cut is offset to compensate the angle of the hackle.
For small spinners, I’d recommend organza. Makes a good post for small 'chutes as well.
The point about seeing your fly (the spent spinner version) on the water is certainly a valid point.
This one in Caucci’s style leaves the top hackle un-clipped for better visibility.
