When you tie a hackle in by the “base” end and proceed to wind it on you end up with the problem of tying it off with several fibers being caught under the thread wraps carrying them forward over the hook eye. Now you have to add more wraps to force these stray fibers back away from the eye. Is there a way to avoid this problem?
I’ve been tying for years and living with this problem, but now I’d like to eliminate this extra step. Thanks.
Hi Ray,
I know the problem you’re speaking of. Here’s what I do, and note I tend to wrap the hackle in the opposite direction of the tying thread. Ok, that said, once I’ve palmered the hackle up the body, and maybe a couple turns for a collar as well (optional), I bring the tying thread up and towards me and have the hackle feather up from away and on top of the hook shank. Now, I try as best I can to pass the hackle through the fibres at the point where the stem wraps to the shank and tie down firmly. On the next time around, I try and get through the fibres at this same point and also bend the hackle feather out over the eye of the hook (to open up “the gap” a bit). Once more around and through the same point then trim the feather. It’s often at trimming when the rouge fibres are left because they are on some extra stem that sticks out from under the thread wraps.
This works ok for larger flies, but it’s harder to do with small hackles. And, in the end, it isn’t foolproof either as I’m often doing some extra trimming.
- Jeff
Thanks Jeff mbut I wind in the usual same direction and am referring to smaller dry flies.
Ray -
Not sure this applies, but it is a technique that Gretchen Beatty demonstrated a couple years ago at a demo with Al at Jimmy’s All Seasons Angler in Idaho Falls.
She demo’d it on a parachute on a down eye hook, which is mostly where I use it, but should work otherwise ?? Before you start your wrap with thread, position the hackle so the stem is directly on top of the hook shank. Do your wraps, I usually do a couple over the hackle, then one in front, and then one more over the top behind the stem, then pull the stem straight forward over the hook eye. Position your scissors directly against and aligned to the hook eye ( on down eye hooks ) and clip. That should take out all the stray fibers with the stem.
Haven’t thought about other uses of hackle, but it strikes me that Gretchen’s technique is so ingrained I just do it as a matter of habit.
John
You can avoid such problems by tying the hackle butt in pointing forwards over the eye, trimming the stalk, and then taking the thread back to the tie in point.
Wind your hackle forward as normal on the thread base, but then, with the last two turns or so ( more for bushy hackles), go BACKWARDS through the hackle you have already wound. Now, holding your thread taut, rib forwards through the hackle, this ties the hackle off automatically! All you need to do now is whip finish. This makes a very neat hackle, and you don’t trap any fibres, also makes a very robust fly. I usually just “twitch” the rest of the hackle off after ribbing it.
If you wish, you may also make the first hackle turns a bit wider, and wind the complete hackle “double”, say three turns forward, and three turns back.
You may also reverse this, and tie the hackle in with the butt pointing backwards towards the bend to start with. Wind the hackle backwards and then forwards for the last turns. In both cases, the “tie down point” is “inside” the hackle windings, and no fibres are trapped.
TL
MC
I simply use my hot tip cauteriser tool. I also have been annoyed by this and tried every which way to avoid it without success.
I mearly carefully burn off the extra fibres and voila!!
Thanks guys. These are some techniques I’ll have to try.
This may have made it worthwhile to come in to work today. Thanks!
I’m not sure where I saw this but it works great. Instead of worrying about stray fibers just whip finish the hackle by hand around the the wing post, cut the extra off carefully, and you don’t even have to go near the eye. Remember, you must bind the hackle to the post and wind it down toward the base of the post. It is there that you whip finish it. You can also do it with a whip finish tool. Also, remember that an inferior quality hackle or a twisted stem can cause many stray fibers and can be a real problem when winding. Hope I helped in some way.