Here is my Sir Richard. I have tied this fly and cut it back off four times. This one has many faults as you can see. The veil is not formed well, the under wings slipped down and I couldn’t get it back in place, the tails of my wings separated and the head is pretty bad. But through it all, I am beginning to understand what to look for and how to handle the materials. Now if I can make my brain and my hands work well together I might get one tied that I am ok with.
and the macaw should be there tomorrow or the next day.
To the untrained eye it looks great!!!
Thanks Wes. I do appreciate that more than you know. I will keep an eye open on how to repay the kindness.
Carp, thanks but it is actually pretty poorly tied. I am just learning and the curve is quite high, higher than I am probably able to make, but it sure is fun trying.
Rookie,
Just out of curiousity, when your building that bullet head, are you using well waxed thread? Helps keep the wraps exactly where you put them. Another use for that wet fly tying wax.
You might consider getting a floss burnisher. Also, when your wrapping a floss body any imperfection in the under body will be magnified so keeping the underbody smooth is important.
REE
Ron, this is all so different it’s like never having have tied a fly before, at least for me. I have been using 8/0 Uni for the head and I will have to add the burnisher to my list of "need to get " items. I appreciate the heads up on these things.
Try 6/0 Danville’s and spin it every now and then while building the head to let it flatten out. The head will come out a lot smoother. I do the same under floss bodies and rarely have to do much burnishing. I use white for everything until I am ready to do the head and then switch to black, red, or whatever is called for. The white seems to flatten out easier than the other colors, too.
Kevin makes a good point. You want a thread that will flatten out as much as possible. VEE uses UTC and Danvilles for her Atlantic Salmon flies. No amount of burnishing will make up for a bumpy underbody, but will smooth out a bump or two from over wrapping some floss.
REE