This weeks Tying Tip, is submitted by Ralph D’Andrea. Check out the
Biot Midges in the Fly of the Week for a related article
by Ralph. ~ Steven
Biots are the tough, interlocking barbs on the leading edge of a bird’s first
flight feather. Many tiers are familiar with using biots as split tails (many
stonefly nymph imitations) or as downwings (Prince Nymph), but fewer
people take advantage of the wonderful properties of biots for body material.
Biot bodies are tough, slender, and have a wonderful, natural-looking
segmentation. Because biots change in width and thickness from tip to butt,
biot bodies tend to be naturally tapered. Also, the little ridges in a biot body
tend to trap air bubbles as the fly enters the water, causing it to take on a natural
sparkle. Figure 1 above shows three different types of flies tied with biot bodies: clockwise
from the top, a biot BWO, a biot “pheasant tail,” and a biot midge pupa. Note
the segmentation that a biot body achieves without the use of ribbing.
Perhaps the reason biots aren’t more popular as a body material is that people
think they are delicate and tough to work with. Improperly prepared and handled,
they can tear easily or fold the wrong way on the first wrap. This article will present
some tips and methods for tying never-fail biot bodies. Like almost everything in fly
tying, the ideas presented here are not my own, but synthesize articles and techniques
presented in several places by other authors, notable among them A.K. Best.
Hopefully, gathering these ideas in one place for you will make them easy to
apply in your own tying.
Figure 2 shows a turkey biot (left) and a goose biot (right). Goose biots tend
to be shorter, narrower, and tougher than turkey biots. They work well on
small flies. The extra length and translucence of turkey biots makes them
wonderful to tie with–the material of choice for flies larger than about size 18.
Preparation
Tip 1: Prepare your materials ahead of time. Although goose biots are generally
sold already stripped from the feather quill, turkey biots are often sold still
attached to the flight feather. When you get a package of biots that is sold
feather and all, use a single-edged razor blade, scalpel, or X-Acto knife to
carefully split the quill down the middle. Peel the strip of biots (the short
heavy barbs) away from the rest of the feather. The rest of the feather can
either be discarded or used for wings or wingcases; the biots are easier to
store and handle if separated from the feather.
Tip 2: Use the right size biots for the job. Fan a strip of biots and you will
note that they come in all different lengths, even on the same feather. They
are typically longer in the middle of the strip, shorter at each end. Nothing
is more frustrating than wrapping a body only to find out the biot you used
was just a little too short to tie off where you needed to. Width is important
as well, since a wider biot requires fewer wraps to cover the hook. It takes
some experience to judge the “right” size, but too big is generally better than
too small. The really short ones you can save and use as nymph tails.
Tip 3: Pull the biots from the strip rather than cutting them. Biots are asymmetrical
in cross section. Depending on whether you want to wrap a smooth body or a
segmented body, you will find that biots have a “right” and a “wrong” side. One
side of the biot (the concave side) has a ridge; if you want to wrap a segmented
body, this ridge needs to be on the trailing edge of the biot so that it isn’t covered
over by the next wrap. Fortunately, the biot itself will tell you which side is which
without too much examination, but only if you pulled it from the strip. The biots in
Figure 2 were each pulled from their respective strips. The arrows point toward a
small notch in the base of each biot. When you want to take advantage of the ridge
to achieve segmentation, this notch needs to be oriented toward the eye end of the
fly when you tie in the biot. (More on this later.) If you cut the biot instead of
pulling it, this notch will be lost and you’ll spend all day peering at biots through
your reading glasses trying to figure out which is the convex side and which is
the concave side.
Tip 4: Always tie with moist biots. Dyed biots tend to be very brittle when dry,
and can split or peel unexpectedly. Soaking the biots makes them unbelievably
tough and resilient. I was teaching some of these techniques to a friend; he went
to tear the biot off after wrapping it and ended up breaking the hook. So much
for the idea that biots are fragile. That’s pretty tough material. A.K. Best suggests
dampening a paper towel and laying a number of biots on it when you are first sitting
down to tie (Figure 3 above). The towel doesn’t have to be dripping wet, just
good and moist. Fold it over the biots and let them soak for 10 or 15 minutes
or so while you are rounding up the rest of your materials. When you get ready
to tie in a biot, just open the folded towel, take one out, and re-fold to keep the
rest of the biots moist. Just remember not to put excess biots away wet, as they
may get moldy.
Tying Technique
Once you have prepared your biots properly, tying with them is pretty easy.
The hardest part is tying them on the hook correctly so that they stay properly
oriented on the first wrap. The procedure I’ll present below shows you how
to do this right every time. For the sake of clarity and simplicity, all of the
photos below show a simple little midge body with no tailing or winging material.
Because of where your hands and the thread need to be, you’ll typically want to
dress more complicated flies tail-to-head: begin by tying in ribbing if desired; the
tail; tie in and wrap the biot; then add wings, thorax, hackle, and head as necessary.
With practice, you’ll find biots are quick and easy to work with. The biot midge
I used for the illustrations below takes me about a minute and a half from start
to finish.
Step 1: Wrap a good thread base to the zero point of the hook. If your fly
needs a tail, tie it in, wrap down the butts, and return the thread to the zero point.
Orient the biot correctly before tying it in. We’ll assume in each of these steps
that you want a segmented body, so hold the biot on your side of the hook,
point down, at about a 45 degree angle to the hook shank as shown in Figure 4.
Note that the notch (pointed to by the arrow) is oriented toward the eye end
of the hook. This is the correct orientation for a segmented body. For a smooth
body, orient the notch toward the bend end of the hook.
Step 2: Take one soft wrap of thread around the hook, capturing the biot (Figure 5).
If the point of the biot deforms, you have made too tight a wrap.
Step 3: Take hold of the butt end of the biot with your fingers and rotate it
carefully till it is perpendicular to the hook shank (Figure 6). Use only enough
thread tension to keep the biot from slipping out. The point of the biot should
rotate a little in the opposite direction, as shown by the arrows. If it doesn’t,
you have held the biot down with too much thread tension. If the biot slips
out, you have used too little tension.
Step 4: Simultaneously pull the biot slightly away from you (around the hook
a bit) and pull on the bobbin to tighten the single thread wrap you made in Step
2. This will start the biot around the hook in the proper orientation. The thread
tension will deform the point of the biot toward the eye end of the hook (Figure 7),
where it can be wrapped down. Wrap down the point and continue building a
thread base with a flattened thread till you get to the place where you want the
body to end. A smooth base is essential to getting good, even wraps that go
where you want them to go. Bumps in the thread base can deform the biot
as it is wrapped, leading to a sloppy body, or worse yet, a torn biot. When
you’re done wrapping the thread forward, leave the bobbin hanging. This
will be the biot tie-off point.
Step 5: Grasp the butt end of the biot in your hackle pliers and begin wrapping
(Figure 8). The first wrap is the most important. Make sure you maintain the
correct orientation of the notch and don’t twist the biot the first time around.
If the notch is still pointed forward when you come up to the top of the hook
after the first wrap, you’ve done everything right. Continue wrapping to the
tie-off point, covering the leading edge of the previous wrap with each new
wrap. Adjust the width of your wraps to achieve the desired segment width,
but always make sure your wraps overlap. Don’t be afraid to use plenty
of tension.
Step 6: When you get to the tie-off point, make an additional wrap that pushes
the thread ahead of the biot a bit. Biots require a wide tie-off area, so you will
have to make the first tie-off wrap diagonal to the biot as shown in Figure 9.
Cinch this first wrap tight and remove the hackle pliers.
Step 7: Make another 2 or 3 tight thread wraps to secure the biot, then clip
off the excess (Figure 10). Be careful not to cut the thread-it will be mixed
up with biot edges and will be hard to see. I cut the thread less often if I make
my 2 or 3 tie-down wraps toward the rear of the fly, away from the leading
edge of the biot. You can also tear off the biot by rocking it back and forth
until your securing thread wraps cut through it. Try it either way and pick
the method that works best for you.
Step 8: Wrap down the rough edges, and continue with the rest of the materials
as necessary (Figure 11). You will build up less thread bulk if you cheat a bit
and push down any edges with your thumbnail, as shown in the figure.
That’s how to tie a biot body. You’ll probably tie the body in about 1/10
as much time as it took you to read this article. You may build on this basic
procedure to make more bulletproof flies. Some tiers wet down the thread
base with head cement prior to wrapping (I recommend a water-based cement
like Aqua Tuff, since the biot will be wet); others rib over the wrapped biot
with wire or tying thread. In practice, even without glue or ribbing, biot
bodies are plenty strong.
Just remember that proper preparation of materials, observing proper
orientation, and a nice smooth thread base are the keys to trouble-free bodies.
~ Ralph D’Andrea, (Rollo)
Please check out the Fly Tying Section, in the Bulletin
Board, on FAOL too.
If you have any questions, tips, or techniques; send them along.
Someone else thought up most of this material before we did,
they just forgot to tell anyone about it. Or else we just
forgot about it, while learning something else. Let us
share with each other, all the things we know!
~ Steven H.
McGarthwaite (Chat Room AKA Parnelli)
Originally published April 22, 2001 on Fly Anglers Online by Steven.