I am tying a bunch of crackle backs for the up coming Mo. fish-in and am attempting to give them (the crackle) a bit more buoyancy at the curve section of the hook. Have had disastrous results . Attempting to have a bit of the hackle stick out to make a bit of a tail not working, the best I can come up with is a bit of a “nub” for want of a better word. Hence my move to microfibbetts. The problem being that I am having trouble getting them to “flair” out. Have tried a few approaches and none satisfy my attempts at mediocrity .
Advice would be appreciated .
Thanks
Perch
I was taught this method by Ken Iwamasa for handling microfibbets - tie the microfibbets in the normal way, maybe even with a small thread bump to help spread them. Stick your fingernail up under to force them to splay apart and get them started in the right direction. However, they will want to go back to the original position (they’re plastic after all). Then simply grab them and “stretch” them way out beyond what you would normally want them to be splayed. They will spring back some, but not all the way. Keep doing this until you have them in the position you want. Then add a drop of superglue to them to set the final position. This has worked pretty well for me on dry flies. The key is to make the material go where you want it to - be foreceful!. Good Luck.
TxEngr
Here’s a quick, easy fix:
When starting the thread on the hook shank, leave about a two inch piece of the tag end of thread hang off the back of the hook - don’t cut it yet. After tying in the clump of fibbetts, use your thumbnail to push against the fibbets where they are tied in (this flares them slightly). Pull the loose tag of tying thread back up over the shank through the middle of the flared fibbetts and tie it off in front of the fibbetts. The more you pull on the tag toward the hook eye, the more the fibbetts will splay outward. You can also flare three fibbetts like a mayfly’s tails using a similar method with a seperate thread loop. That technique is shown in this tutorial:
http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=110
Just a thought - why not tie in a clump of the hackle fibers you got from preparing the hackle feather at the end of the hook (ala: a Catskill style dry fly tail) after you tie in the hackle feather? That’d be quicker and easier yet.