This is the way Charlie Craven showed me to do the wings one day in his shop.
Pinch the slips and hold them to the shank. LOOSELY make a couple of wraps of thread where you want to tie it all down and then with one quick motion, pull up on the thread to cinch the wing in place all at once. Tip the wing forward and make a few wraps behind it to hold it upright. The trick is to not turn that sucker loose until you have it locked in place.
The tails look fine to me. The wings could be just a “hare” shorter and have more of a wider split, and I personally like more hackle tied in front of the wing like you wrote. I actually like tying quill wings on dry’s. They are some of the most nice looking fly’s out there when tied just right. Here’s a size 20 94840 no hackle that I tied last week for this coming season. My camera’s shutter/eye is physically broken so that’s why it appears to be over exposed. I normally don’t comment/critique on another persons fly without at least some form of knowing that I can at least tie the same type of wing.
Mark, I like the no hackle. I have been trying to tie them, but I can’t get the wings to stand upright and out to the sides. My wings tend to lay back against the side of the fly sort of like a wet fly wing but a little more upright. Do you have any advice on how to get the wings set correctly? I’ve made a dozen attempts and cut each one apart because they didn’t look right.
With all this interest in the GRHE dry fly, I was browsing in the Archive I found this American pattern -
‘The Dry Fly and Fast Water’ by George M. L. La Branche (1914). I have not tried dressing it but thought it would be of interest.
I just tried sending you a PM since I don’t want to hijack Normans thread. Your message box displays that it’s full. if you empty it a little, I’ll send you some info on how I tie them.
Nice pattern. I think you are fine with the hackling…it’s just that your wing was pulled forward leaning a bit too far, so it appears to be lacking in hackle in the front. If the wing was pulled back a bit, to straight or slightly to the rear it would look proportionate. Some of that Cree/Ginger variant hackle would have made a great tailing as well.
AS you pointed out - a little longer tail - but even that’s nitpickin ! LOL!! I like it! I like those wings being out there- prominent. Standard New England type ties have a tendency to cover up the wing silhouette, with the hackles, IMHO. Thanks for sharing.
Mark Vendon - Very well tied NO-Hackle! IMHO, the no-hackles are one of the best choices for flat water sippers. Thanks for posting.