Tying up some #20 PTs and tried 2 different ways to hackle (couldn’t wrap the hackle because the partridge didn’t have feathers that small; also less fragile with these alternatives):
prepare feather (cut center portion out), place over fly with barbs pointing back towards tail, use 2 soft wraps, adjust length as needed by pulling feather and then finish wraps (tail’s a bit long on this one):
prepare feather (cut center portion out), place over fly with barbs pointing forwards over hook eye, use 2 soft wraps, adjust length as needed by pulling feather, push barbs back over the fly and then finish wraps:
Although it doesn’t show up very well in the photos, I think I get a better distribution of barbs using the 2nd method and the head of the fly is also smaller and neater (fish probably don’t care). Tying that way is also a little faster, not much but enough.
From your pics, your right about the 2d method giving better distribution. I would, however, fish both flies with confidence. Nice dressings, somewhat reminiscent of Jim Slattery’s Triple Threat Caddis.
Nifty flies. Yes. Most partridge feathers are too big, even for some hook sizes even bigger than #20
I’ve had some success by cutting the feather fibers and loading them into a Petitjene tool. When you do that you can mix in a few sparkly fibers too. And/or a few CDC fibers as well.
That’s what I was hoping for, although everyone thinks I’m crazy for wanting it since I’ll be camping. My neighbor was in YNP last week, had sunny 60s-70s and did pretty well with hoppers but I’m sure the sunshine kept the hatches down.
Somebody was trying to explain to me how to adjust the size of smaller hackle by spinning the hackle like deer hair - but I couldn’t get it to work - would you think to tear the hackle off the stem and tie it on in clumps with the tips facing forward, then spin them, then push them back like option 2?
I leave everything including the beak and feet on bird skins when I prepare them… Those tiny feathers across the front of the head are usually smaller than any fly I am going to tie… Too bad commercial producers do not think the same…
If anyone is interested, there are two methods of using larger feathers for smaller soft hackles on youtube. One is demonstrated by Craig Mathews and is the method I use. You notch a large feather and hold it over the hook eye so that the fibers are the correct length and then sort of “roll” the soft hackle feather tips as you tie them on.
I can get the hackle to “roll” on flies down to a #16 but haven’t had much success on smaller ones. Of course, there are lots of things I can’t do nearly as well as Craig Mathews and Andy Burke (lol).
another method for using oversize feathers that Al Beatty posted on one of these threads some time ago is to split your thread and insert one side of the feather into the gap to the desired length. You then cut away the rest of the feather and wrap the thread as you would a hackle stem. I’ve used this method and like the result.
