willowhead

Hope you get there too Jens........GRREAT tyes you did there. Please let me know if you guys would like me to come over and tye next year....... mark..... hey Bruce. We're gonna be in Washington state next May1st and 2ed for the FFF Washington State Council Conclave.......Ellensburg or Ellensville......?? Ellen somethin' or other i think it is........you gonna be there?

Thankx David.......that gut came with the hooks.......it's a very heavy (individual strands) gauge.........it was twisted 4 strand.........but i sperated lots of it when i chopped the snelling.........the eye on that fly has only two strands twisted.........and i dyed it yellow. mark.....

"Blasphemy".........WOW! hell-of-a-compliment...........never could stand religion..........nothin' but Dogma. .....Thankx Jamie, mark..... JAZZ and fly fishin'/tyin'..........no dogma. :hyst:

All is well thankx. We're travelling north now........will be in New York City tomorrow. Live from Bentlyville, Pennsylvainia. mark.....

Thankx Steve.....see ya in Mason i hope. mark.....

as your doing your wraps/turns of hackle.........always stroke the fibers to the rear as you go as well...........and don't forget to keep your bodkin handy, for doin' what i said above. mark.....

TKX! i'll do my best..... mark..... Live, from Terrehaute, Indiana

Cool pattern, great tye. Live from Terrehaute, Indiana. mark.....

:hyst: i get so many PM's...........it's hard to keep it semi-empty.............i'm normally lucky to have 5/6 open slots....and they fill up daily. i'll try to keep after it........... mark

Thankx Steve.....hope to see you in Mason. mark.....

Yes Micke, MORE please. mark.....

Claudia, you are so kind.....and there's nothing wrong with being selfish if you have the right intent. Have a GREAT day. mark.....

i think they're both a couple of secret agents........... ...................if they ever show up here together..........i'll know i'm right. :hyst:

Claudia, please let us know how this fly works for you.....on the Bows. TKX! mark.....

Claudia.....trust me.....over here, in the States.....those patterns are ABSOLUTELY NOT forgotten.........especially in the west. But then again.....we have never had the pleasure of seeing your versions.......so keep up the great work. Beautiful tyes. mark.....

Wise decision girl.....

Yes, the Bivisable is a Hewitt original..........i have lived fishing the same waters as he did for the last 20 years.....in the Catskills. The original is Brown and White. And it was designed to be able to see it better and to be fished in fast water. The originals were bout two thirds brown hackle and only one third, or half as many turns, of white. In those days there were very few Rainbows in the waters of the Catskills.........and for that matter even the Browns had not yet taken over as much as today. The Catskills were mostly a Brook Trout fishery. I'd be willing to bet that your Blue Version would do very well with the Rainbows there today. It's a very very nice tye. Wonderful work. Thankx for sharin', mark.....

i saw this pattern in the slide show........so i had to come back and corekt a mistake i had made (above).....ealier..... it's fixed now.....

Dang, i apoligise Claudia.........it is Mallard of course.......i didn't pay the kind of attention i should have, to that little blue area on the feather(s)........i'm so hung up about finding some REALLY WHITE, White tip turkey feathers............which i can never seem to find.............that my vision was blurred........again, sorry. As always, you flies and your tying are WONDERFUL! mark.....

DON'T THAT GO WITHOUT SAYIN'.............. :hyst: ...........AFTER ALL, THIS AINT NO ONE SIDE STRIPPED OFF, OLE' FASHION TURN AND A HALF WET FLY. :lol2:

why we don't have that little laughin' head rollin' back and forth on this site is beyond me............ :hyst: .............OH!

Very often it helps if you "Fold" your hackle before you tye it in and wrap it..........there are many ways to do this and i will tell you how i do it, most often. First of all i'm semi-ambidexturious.....so i do some things right handed and some left and some either way. I fold left handed and i fold down. many tyers fold hackle up. It makes no difference whatsoever as long as you get the job done. Take your feather and hold it (by the tip), in your less dominate hand and with your thumb and forfinger of your dominate hand, pull the fibers/barbs down the opposite way from which they grow on the Rachis, (stem).....start that process at the tye in point.....no need to fold that which you will not use. Next, take your hackle pliers and attche them to the butt of the stem, where it is strong enough not to break while your "folding" but close enough to the fibers where you'll be able to comfortably reach to the tye in point to begin folding. Start at the tye in point and fold the hackle down and back........putting memory in the fibers. Force them to go in the direction you will want them to go when you wrap the hackle, (feather).....think of it as Pre-Production. Your training the fibers to do what you want them to do........(Second MOST important thing in all of fly tying.............knowing your materials and making them do what YOU want them to do as opposed to them being in control and frustrating you).........it's like training your hair again after a haircut. YOUR the boss....... Just press the fibers against the stem and pull down and back..........do it hard enough for it to break the membrane that holds all the fibers to the stem so that you'll "know" how hard is to hard.........only way for you to learn that is to break it, so you can "Feel" how much pressure will do that and when to ease back. If you were here i could show you many different things to do after that in terms of "ways" to tye it in...........and wrap, etc., etc. But i'm busy as hell right now. I hope this helps. Give it a try and i'll get back to you here at this thread when i can. One thing, i usually tye the feather in at the same angle i would a dry fly hackle for a classic stlye Catskill Dry. You may also want to clip off a few of the fibers on the far side of the feather, (side away from you when "at" the tye in point....) so as to get that first wrap started "Clean." When i wrap hackle for a plamered body or a collar, i always have the handle of a very fine needled Bodkin in my mouth to grab and use as i wrap.....keeping the fibers as seperated from sticking to eachother as possible as i go. And to keep any traped fibers from staying traped. I pull them out and stroke them back as i go if they do get traped. Naturally the whole idea is not to let them get traped in the first place.....but always be prepared for that. Keep your "wraps" as close together as you can without ever putting one right on top of the previous one. Sometimes just a very tiny gap between "turns" is ok....but VERY tiny. Keep the fibers goin' in the direction you want them to go at all times and don't let the fibers get trapped by the Rachis. Take your time and be as neat and carefull as possible. Once your finished wraping, take your Bodkin and seperate any fibers that seem to be stuck to eachother.....alllllllllll the way around. One by one by one by one if you have to.......now for your Spey fly and others where you only want the body hackle "Underneath".....take your bodkin and stick it (from front to back) right down the middle of the hackle on top of the shank and divide the hackle down the middle. Then take your thumb and forfinger and press the hackle down and against the body of the fly, to force the fibers to stay "Below" the shank/body. Put some added memory in the fibers and you should be set to go. Remember, for these types of flies it pays to ordinarily use a soft hackle.....Pheasent, Hen, Heron, and while Schllapen is rooster tail, it's plenty soft enough. Good luck. mark..... sorry for any punctuation and or spellin' errors..........

Spey Flies and Dee Flies by John Shewey.........amoung many others. Gotta run. mark

Dang, WHAT kinna Prison hands out stripe suits in those colors..............? :whistle: :bugeyes: :dunno: :lol2: :eek: Looks like the kinna chain gang that would be doin' the plumbin' at a CAT HOUSE! Cool fly Bro. mark.....

Bob, i painted off and on for a period of years, and quite seriously for periods of time.............."back in the days".............but i never did landscapes, portraits, or bowls of fruit back then either. :nono: ..... :hyst: :lol2: ..... Later Gator, mark.....