Not talking about the black tips… I can if you want though… What I want to know is how important are the split tails? I have always tied my comparaduns with split tails but is it worth it? I always thought that spinners had to be tied with split tails however when I was looking through AK’s Flybox earlier I noticed that his spinner patterns didnt use split tails. So basically are they worth the effort of just a small wast of time?
You could try tying a couple with straight tales and see what happens. If sparkle duns float correctly then any undivided tail should work. The divided tail is to encourage the fly to float upright since it is supported on both sides and cannot rollover on it’s side as easily as well as imitating the multiple tails on the natural insect.
Splitting tails is something I usually do, but I don’t think it is all that important for imitation. However, there is another reason I split them. The method I use is to fold a piece of floss around the hook bend and bring it up between the tails tying it down to the top of the hook shank. If you use some bright green or yellow floss you get a little of the floss showing, that imitates an egg sack.
There have been days when I have known fish take flies tied with this in preference to the same dressing without it. In fact the first time I tried this I was fishing the Paythorn length of the river Ribble (above Slaidburn below Settle for those that know the area). I was with a friend who didn’t have any spinner imitations with him. I had my old style without the tag in my box and the new ones in a container in my pocket. Stupidly I just handed him the container with the new flies in it. He then proceeded to out fish me by at least 3 to one. Of course he wouldn’t let me try with one of the new patterns. When he relented and gave me one back I redressed the balance. Since then I have always tied my spinner imitations in this way.
Cheers,
A.
Hi rvrwader,
I tie mine splayed out using the thread bump method that AK Best wrote about in one of his books. The tail arches up a little in the center, and it has several more hackle barbs than it would if it were split, but that’s the way I’ve been tying them for quite a while now.
Regards,
Mark
I do not splay them on most of mine. On comparaduns larger than a #16 I do, but on the smaller patterns I tighten at the tie-in point and “splay” them. That seems to do well.
Ralph
I guess it depends on how much you want your flies to be somewhat realistic or just impressionistic. The split tails on the larger, say size 14+, flies seem to look better and also have a specific function. They act as outriggers that balance the fly and give it added surface tension. To make a comparison to the actual mayflies, especially the ‘spinner’ phase, just look at the tails on the actual insect. Here in the Catskills, the 2 tails on the March Brown spinner is about 2x the lenghth of the body and very splayed.
Does having flies tyed with split tails vs. flies not tyed that way matter? That has and will always be the $6,400,000 question (I’ve allowed for inflation). What do you think?
Allan
I also use the bump method also to splay the tail. The purpose of the tail is to support the heaviest portion of the hook, the bend and the point. On a comparadun, a sinking rear probably is taken as a late stage emerger. I use sparkle duns for that purpose.
Bud Hockley of Baltimore Maryland devised another method of tying spit or fan tails which is both elegant and simple . This method was described in the 1985 September issue (vol 16, issue 6) of Fly Fisherman Magazine, pg 36 by none other than John Betts, the originator of microfibbets.
Tie in the microfibbets using an even number of fibers to the top of the hook taking the tying thread back to where you would like to split the tail. Using a bodkin in your non-dominant hand, place the bodkin needle parallel to the hook so that it lies at the level of the hook and next to it along the shank of the hook from back to front, with the tip of the needle toward the eye of the hook. The hook and bodkin needle should be separated by about a cm.
Now take the next thread wrap over the bodkin needle and then under the microfibbets but above the hook shank so that the thread is between the hook and the microfibbets. Using the bodkin needle as a guide, angle the needle, so you place the thread tie so that it lies as far forward as it can go between the shank and the microfibbets. Then let the thread slip off of the front end of the needle. Do that several times until the microfibbets are canted up from the hook. Then place a tie around the top of the microfibbets, using the bodkin needle to split the tails and tie the split tails down in position.
This method essentially does the same thing a building up a thread ball and then tieing the microfibbets over it. However it allows you to split the tails with a smaller and cleaner looking fly because only a few wraps are needed to split the tails. Try it on your smallest flies to avoid a relatively large dubbing bump for the size of the fly.
Thanks guys. Great information as always. I have always split them using the thread ball and will continue to do so.
Very simple solution: use Zelon or Widow’s Web and tie Sparkleduns instead. I don’t carry the standard Comparadun anymore, and more and more my first choice in any mayfly situation is going to something with a shuck-type tail. We’ve even done some good on otherwise standard parachutes tied with shucks.
I was going to suggest that, but thought someone would say: “he asked about ‘comparaduns’”. Like you, I have gone to Sparkle Duns. It is not just because the spit tails often get “messed up” through handling and being put in and taken out of a fly box. The Sparkle Dun represents the emergent insect which has not yet become free of its shuck and is therefore particularly vulnerable to the trout - and they know it!!!
This…Have had some very good days on a biot bodied parachute adams with a shuck: “sparkle biot paracute adams”
This is particularly true of PMDs and to a lesser extent BWO. The real critters take a long time to get out of their shucks and many don’t make it. This is why the rises to PMD are often so “businesslike,” with little rush on the part of the fish. Compare that to a Green Drake rise where the fish go nuts, because once the drake is on the surface of the water it will go as soon as its wings are dry --which is why drake fishing is MUCH better when conditions are wet.