Tying in legs

came across this pattern, tied by a gentlemen named Carl Pennington, it’s called “Fall Splender”, looks like a variation of the bugger. I wanted to try and tie a few of these in different colors, but can’t figure out the best way to tie in the rubber legs into the body. I’ve attached a pic of the fly and was hoping to get some suggestions as to the best technique to tying the legs. I assume you’d have to tie them in before hackling the body … or maybe not.

any suggestions would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Happy Holidays,

Mike

Howdy!
I tie LOTS of buggers/streamers w/ rubber legs. There’s a couple of ways to do this but here is what works ~for me~. Your mileage may vary.

Lay down a base of thread on the entire hook shank. Tie in tail, flash, whatever in tail.
Next make your wraps of lead if you weight the fly. If not skip that…:^)
Next, tie in legs. Space them where you want them and make your first 2 wraps loose, just enough pressure to keep them from falling off and held in place. Next wraps, start tightening down your wraps of thread. I use a figure 8 method of tying down the wraps across the legs. If one of the legs starts bending back or front too far, you can manipulate the direction of them somewhat with thread positioning. Just experiment some.
Next, tie in the hackle (for palmering) and the chenille at the base of the tail. Wrap chenille, tie off, then hackle (wire rib too if you like that).
You can also manipulate the directions of the legs when wrapping your chenille by putting pressure against them w/ wraps of chenille.

Good luck!

HI DarrinG,

so it’s basically like tying a woolly bugger, but adding the legs before adding the body materials and hackle, and wrapping them around the legs. Doesn’t sound too difficult.

thanks for the helpful tips :wink:

Mike

Mike, I do mine just like DarrinG, said he does his. After you tie 2 or 3 they will come real easy. John

gonna try tying a couple of them later today :wink:

Mike

ive trie tying in leggs after the hackle is done and before… i find it easier to do it before the body material is wrapped… tying in leggs after the body is tied ya have to work the thread around everything & youre gonna get some hackle trapped in the thread… so rather than go through all that i just tie leggs first then work the materials around the leggs…

Hi Mike - I’ve seen that fly called the “Autumn Splendor”. This tutorial from Charlie Craven should help:

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=90

Mike -

I’ve tried several different methods for tying in multiple sets of legs, particularly on rubber leg stonefly nymphs.

The one that works best for me, but may not for anyone else, is to tie in the chenile, wrap the tying thread forward to the point you want the legs, and then wrap the chenile forward to that point. Then take a turn around the chenile with the tying thread and pull it back out of the way. Wrap a couple turns forward with the tying thread. Take a length of leg material and double it over the tying thread. Take a couple wraps to secure the leg material to the hook. Pull the legs toward the rear on either side of the hook. Wrap over the legs back to the point where the chenile is tied off and then wrap the tying thread forward to the next place you want legs. Repeat for as many sets of legs as you want.

For a bugger style fly, just wrap the hackle through the legs as you bring it forward.

This is the easiest way for me to do it, and it results in a “bulletproof” fly.

John

This looks like the same exact fly too, this will be a big help, now I have a nice pattern to follow too.

John, I tried the technique you’ve mentioned with another foam pattern and it worked quiet nicely too, but there wasn’t any hackle on the body to contend with. As a very novice tyer, I still have allot to learn, but luv picking up all these great tips here!

Thanks gang for the great info :smiley:

Mike

For an ‘easier’ alternative:

Tie on the tail.

Tie in a length of ribbing wire (I use copper harvested from electrical cord wire).

Tie in the chenille.

Wrap the thread to the front of the hook, follow it with the chenille and tie it off and trim it.

Tie in the hackle at the front of the body.

Wrap the hackle back to the rear and secure it with two wraps of the wire and trim the hackle.

Wrap the wire forward in even turns to the point where you want the first set of legs. Fold TWO lengths of rubber leg material over the wire and make one tight wrap of the wire traping the rubber legs on TOP of the body. Leave this set of legs there and wrap the wire forward to where you want the next set of legs.

Repeat with each set of legs you want, then warp the wire to the front of the body and tie it off, trim the wire and the thread and form your head.

Stretch the rubber of the first set of legs and pull one ‘pair’ of legs down to each side of the fly. Repeat with each set of the the legs. Trim the legs to length if needed.

With this method, you don’t have to tie the legs to the shank, nor do you have to work both the chenille and hackle around the legs. You can position the legs at whichever ‘angle’ to the body you desire, and even change that if you want to. All you have to do to ‘reposition’ the legs is stretch them and move them (stretching hte legs thins them down so they slide easier, once you release the tension, they ‘thicken’ back up and lock into place).

Works well, and it’s easy to do.

Buddy

Buddy…another …Duh moment:cool::cool:…I always value your posts.

after reading Buddy’s post it does sound easier. Tried tying a couple of those patterns last night, didn’t come out very well. the legs tend to get all tangled up in the hackle, or maybe just me. Don’t have the most nibble fingers and experience.

gonna try using Buddy’s technique on another one and see it works.

Mike

Heres a link on how to tie that fly.
http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=90

tie the legs in like a girdle bug

http://books.google.com/books?id=8sGVmsNIJsEC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=tying+the+girdle+bug&source=web&ots=FQ2t3COy-Y&sig=HyHa1aV7sD5xFzM-7kXYwACezxI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result

or even easier is to tie in the legs with a simple overhand knot