After my first week behind the vise I have three recurring issues that are top on my list of learning curves so far. First, I crowd the eye on 90% of all my flies. Any suggestions on how to stop this? Second, when I wrap lead under my nymph bodies I have an issue with material slipping off the front of the lead wraps helping to crowd my eye. Any suggestions? Third, most of my nymphs that involve dubbing look anorexic. I guess I need more dubbing material on the thread. Any suggestions? Also, whats the rule of thumb when tying with proportions. By this I mean what percentage is the tail, thorax, abdomen, etc.?
I’m pretty much just starting out, but I can echo some advice I’ve already gotten here and some other advice I’ve found elsewhere.
Crowding the eye - This is a big problem for me as well, but it started getting immediately better when I started to religiously “mark” where I wanted the material to stop and the head to begin with my thread wraps. If you want the head to be, say, six thread widths, then start your thread six thread widths from the eye and tell yourself not to tie in any materials past this point.
Weighting wire - Tie in your weighting wire as you’d normally do, but build a dam of thread with a nice taper before and after it, that way instead of having a sudden drop off, you get a slope and it’s much easier to keep the materials behaving.
Proportions - If I really think about it, most of what I’ve been tying seems to follow the same basic measurements: tail = 2/3 hook shank length; abdomen = 60% of shank length; thorax = 35% and head what you’ve got left. Really I’m just eye-balling it, which is suspect is what most people do.
Hope this makes sense and helps.
Crowding the head - When you start your thread on a bare hook to do your thread base, start the thread about 1/32nd behind the hook eye and make sure that you stop at that point with the fly body/thorax material. This will leave a small area of bare hook shank between the body/thorax and the hook eye for you to do your whip finish.
Step-down created by the lead wraps - After you have wrapped the lead onto the hook shank, take your bobbin and overwrap the lead with your tying thread to the front and then build a tapered thread base from the front edge of the lead wire down to the hook shank which will eliminate the step-down. If the fly has a tail, you can tie in the tail material and cut off the excess so that it falls at the back of the lead wraps and when you wrap over this it will build up the step-down at the back of the lead wire.
Dubbing -You are better off dubbing with too little dubbing to start with than dubbing with too much at the start. Continue using small amounts of dubbing on your thread and wrap the body. If you feel it is not enough, all you have to do is twist more dubbing on your thread and wrap over your first wraps. Your fly will be more durable if you build the dubbed body up this way instead of too much dubbing on the thread at the start and it is a lot easier to build a taper to the body with small amouts and add dubbing as needed to get the results you are wanting.
Porportions - I know there is a formula for porportions, but, I cannot put my hands on it right this moment, so, I will allow others to answer this question for you. I tie all my flies and do the porportions by my own “eye-balling” of the fly. The best way I can try to explain it is to look at the fly like looking at a human body in that the eye of the hook being the head, the thorax area being the human chest area and the abdomen being from the waist down. I know that sounds dumb, but, that is the way I found from teaching Beginner’s Fly Tying, that the students seemed to understand it better. So, the abdomen will start at the tail tie-in point and go past the half way point of the hook shank and the thorax will start there and stop short of the hook eye.
I hope someone comes along and answers your questions better than I have so that you will understand better. I am a better “hands-on” teacher than a book writer.
Two book that have been very helpfull after meany years of tying. recommend for the frist week and beyond. Basic Fly Tying Jon Rounds and Wayne Luallen. I did not tie for 15 years started at page 1 and tied everything in the book per the instructions.made me a better tier. The outher book I recommend Basic Fly Tying by Charlie Craven. Both will address your questions. The next best thing to hands.
fly proportions
http://derekspace.net/prop.htm
leave 1 eye length of clear space behind the eye of the hook for the head.
Thanks guys.
A couple/three years ago, Fly Fisherman put out a little called “Getting Started in Fly Tying.”
An article on may fly proportions had this to say:
Duns…
Wing = Tail = Hook shank length (HSL).
Collar = 1.5 x hook gape
Body = .5 x HSL
FWIW, I usually put my wings at the 30% mark from the eye and make the body to the point where I have enough room for three turns behind the wings. So my bodies are probably more like .6 x HSL
Nymphs:
Body = thorax = .5 x HSL
Tail = hook gape