I am having a hard time tying off the hackle right behind the hook eye. I can wind it properly but when i go to tie the hackle off, im moving from a horizontal wrap to a virtical wrap… so after i tie off, there is a portion of hackle covering the thorax of my fly. You can notice where i have pulled the hackle to the eye to tie it off.
Is there a proper way of tying off hackle on these flies, so that there is a clean tie off. The fly looks horrible when there is a bunch of hackle pinned down and you cannot pull it out without unwinding the hackle.
the way i do it is to finish the fly with parachute installed then whip finish the head and start the thread over again on the parachute, tie in the hackle, wrap around post then, you tie down the hackle end and whip finish on the parachute it works like a charm and the flies will be beautiful. if the post is not strong enough then you can add a drop of superglue before tying on hackle and when you tie in the parachute. p.s. if you don’t have a pair of rotary hackle pliers… GET SOME they are wonderful for parchutes!
My way of tying off the hackle on a parachute:
When you have completed the last wrap of the hackle, unwind the last wrap, strip off hackle barbs where the end will be when re wrapped. This leaves you with only a stem, no barbs to mess you up in your tie off. You can even add dubbing to the thread if you need to fill in the thorax. Yes, a bit difficult but with practice and patience will make you a nice fly.
Hope this helps.
Al Beatty covered this in “Fly Tyer” Issue Autumn 2006 and Ed Engel covered Al’s method in “Small Flies”.
All I can say is it works GREAT at least down to size 24.
Bill
I tie off on the post with different thread, just like flyandtie, because I found that after a few fish - sometimes just one - the fish’s teeth sometimes broke the exposed hackle stem running from the post to the eye and the hackle would unwind from the post. I also think tying off on the post looks cleaner, although I’m sure the fish don’t care. Check out this tutorial on Hans’ website of the Klinkhamer Special and tying off on the post, just as flyandtie described it. Pictures with it may make it easier to understand.
it works like a charm and the flies will be beautiful. if the post is not strong enough then you can add a drop of superglue before tying on hackle and when you tie in the parachute. p.s. if you don’t have a pair of rotary hackle pliers… GET SOME they are wonderful for parchutes!