I was tying some PMD’s yesterday and found this hook. I rarely use a straight eye hook, but grabbed this one. Not even sure if it is an 18 or a 20!
I’m pretty unorganized in my tying and sometimes my hooks get mixed up. I assume I’m not the only one with this disease.
What size is this fly?
Do you have a hook / hackle gauge? That would probably be the best way to check.
I don’t have a problem with jumbling my hooks up. However, in the rare instances where my flies actually get shredded before I donate the fly to weeds/trees/other folks, I drop the fly into a section of my production box at home. I finally got around to stripping/recycling those flies this year. I had maybe 20 flies after 3 years of fly fishing. Sorting those hooks was fairly quick.
What size is this fly?
Not sure…what size is your hand? Give us a standard to judge it by.
Brad
I believe I have determined it to be an 18.
I accidently tip my hook box over on the floor every 3 or 4 years
A few years ago I bought a bunch of fly fishing stuff from a guy who couldn’t fish any more. It included a parts bin with hooks in many of the compartments. Somewhere on the way home I had to stomp on the brakes. I still have a ziplock bag of those hooks that I sort through once in a while. I still finding the occasional hook or bead when I sold the car.
Byron,
Just curious do you typically tie your wings undivided like the one pictured?
No, I usually divide them with more definition. On this little one, I felt the natural separation of the separate feather tips was adequate. On most of these, I will thread each wing side at the base, after figure “eighting” the feather tips.
Very astute 1hook!
Great looking little fly. Reason I asked was I more recently have not been dividing my upright wings on that style of fly. I have actually been taking a few wraps around the base of the total group of feathers to gather a bit. I was feeling like when I separated the wing in two that it blended more into the hackle, where keeping it all in one bunch provides a better distinction of a wing. Not sure if the fish care either way.
Every once in a while I take flies that are beat up, or no long seem t work for me ad cut the materials off. Then they go in a small jar and I tie flies with what I grab out of it.
After dropping a box with several different hook styles and sizes in it, Iam very very carefult usng it.
Rick
My nemesis is not my hook box. It is my head cement. About once a year I am good for a spill. And most often, my attempt to “stop” the spill from happening makes it even worse.
I’m thinking #16 or #18.
I tend to tie in most of my dry wings as a post from #16 down.
Very interesting point!
Along the same lines, perhaps, after tying a winged, hackle fly, should the hackle above the hook shank be cut flat…in front and behind the wings?? After all, a real insect does have legs below/at side, but nothing above the hook shank, partially hiding their wings…
With hackle in place:
[
H](http://s1101.photobucket.com/user/byhaugh/media/IMG_0472_zpsjqqbohin.jpg.html)ackle trimmed above shank
Good idea, looks a little weird but the wings definetly stands out. One step further, besides spinners do we ever really see may flys with their wings apart like that? They are always together when not flying.
Some of the attributes of Thorax patterns. 
Sorry, would “beg to differ” as they say. If we view duns from above and from the side, we do see what appears to be a single wing. Trout tend to see the insect, from below the surface, coming at them. In that case, the divided wings are clearly visible. Some of the best pictures of this are in “Trout and the Fly” and many other books. In fact, most books on the subject of what a trout sees, state that the divided wing tips are the first thing that enters the trout’s “window” as an insect approaches.
My thoughts based on my readings. I have no, personal, underwater experience.
I think the hackled collar provides as much of that as anything else. Example, para’s and thorax ties.
Ralph,
Do you have a copy of “The Trout and The Fly”. It and other books show, from underwater camera shots, what the trout first sees of an insect/fly coming into its window of vision. It is the tips of the divided wings that are first seen and they are not attached to the body. As the insect/fly gets closer, the “blob” of the body comes into view, but it isn’t attached to the wings. Only when it is quite close does the fish see the entire object.
I wish I could show the explanation and accompanying photos. The book is amazing. There are others which show and explain the same thing.
Yes, i have read the book. And its certainly one aspect of what trout see. But if that was the soul aspect of a drifting dry fly, paras and thorax patterns would lag. And i dont feel they do. I personally feel that hackle be it CDC or standard, and the footprint it provides, is a far more important trigger.
Marinaro, father of thorax flies, stressed the height of wings on his dry flies. He believed wings were critical. The thorax style hackling provided a stable platform for his pronounced wings.
As I recall, he didn’t believe in the importance of fly bodies…just pronounced wings, and the thorax style of hackling (which he felt well represented the footprint of the dun).
here’s a neat little video on current methods of tying a Marinaro style thorax dry fly:
[http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/video-how-to-tie-a-thorax-style-sulfur-dun/
M](http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/video-how-to-tie-a-thorax-style-sulfur-dun/)y attempt this morning at a Marinaro style thorax dun.
