gunpowderleader

The flies and the wood duck arrived today all in good order. Thank you trout guy for hosting such a fun swap

Flies are in the mail, sadly they have been sitting on my desk for way to long, work has kept me unable to make it to the post office during the day!

Crackaig, very nice wing sets. i use the same method for folded wings, especially on Clyde styled flies. I want to second the importance of that gap between the first two folds.

As far as seeing the body I do not when I set wings. Rather I can feel the hook pinched between my fingers.

When you finish the body or hackle ( depending on pattern) and are ready to set the wing. At this point the thread should be hanging at the point that you want the wing mounted. Then when pinching the wing in place you lift the thread straight up, then over and down catching this soft loop in your pinched fingers, lift the thread straight up again pinching in the fingers and with a smooth even motion pull up and tight while relaxing your fingers holding the wing in place. With practice this will set the wing very smoothly. Once tight the thread can be brought over the back side of the fly to hang underneath. This essentially gives you two wraps of thread holding the wing in place. Completely remove your fingers and inspect the wing. If you are satisfied with the set continue on with the fly. If not unwrap and reset the wing.

Mine are ready for the mail, just need the address

Here are a few pictures of some wing sets, I pulled these from my website for examples

Vic, I do mean that the first soft loop makes a complete wrap and ends up above the hook to be pulled tight. In that way the quill is trapped between two threads being collapsed straight down on itself. To get the quills to slide down the hook sides a little is done be changing your pressure point where the quills and hook meet.

Do not spray the feathers. This will cause you more problems then it will ever hope to solve. I have seen this recommended for wing cases on nymphs. I advise against it and do not do this to any feather. I tie many quill wings a year, not only for wets, but also for classic dries both English and American. With practice a feather will do almost anything you want.

There are many tricks to setting wings properly. The first place to start is with the best quality feathers that you can find. After that patience is a virtue. Making sure each wing slip is matched in size and length to its partner is important. A very helpful bit of advice that I learned from Don Bastian is to set the wings using your thumb and middle finger instead of your index finger. You have more control over the feathers this way. Setting wings from a quill and from a flank or turkey feather require different techniques to make them set correctly. Do not try to apply one technique to all the feather types. With quills pinching in place atop the hook, a wrap of loose thread also pinched in place with the fingers, pulling steady and evenly upward will collapse the quill rather flat to the tie in point. With mallard flank and turkey using both hands, one controls where the wing set, the other feeds the butts of the feather to the tie in point, Gravity will pull the bobbin down as you use your hands to control the feathers positioning, check your mount then finish setting the wing with additional tight wraps of thread I am sure that there are many ways to successfully mount wet fly wings, these are the ones that work well for me. Above all though practice, practice, practice will get you there

Yeah vicrider, think you got the names crossed. Both of mine are rabbit fur, the articulated fly has a head of arctic fox in a dubbing loop.

I've landed on a fly to tie for this swap. How about a leadwing coachman dry, quill wings

Some mighty nice work from everyone here. I can't wait to get these in the water!

I'd love to join this swap of you will have me.

I apologize for taking so long, but the flies are in the mail. Got to the post office just in time. I hope you all enjoy, the squishy is a pattern of my own design and has had some great successes. I can't wait to see all of the flies come and then to take them for a swim!

I will tie a articulated of my own design called Squishy and my small fly will be a bead head bunny leech if that's OK with all here

I would like to join if you will have me.

I would like join if you will have me

Check out suncloud. From my understanding they are a division of action optics. At $49.99 a pair they are tons better than the cheap junk at wal-mart yet will not break the bank. I have been using them for a few years now, I personally find the rose colored the most useful on streams, but that's just my opinion.

Tying small flies, Ed Engle. A very informative book and I recommend it for anyone that ties and fishes small flies. Not only does he get into tying the tiny ones, more is explained of techniques for success. A great reference book indeed. The Leon Links CDC book is a great read. It gives the tyer a great overview of many uses for CDC. As we know most of which have come from Europe. The photography of this book I find is rather good, which makes it nice if you are trying to make a tie look like the picture. With a head full of ideas it is easy to search the web for a technique that you might not know or can figure out by looking at the photo

Flied will be out in the mail in the morning. Hope you guys enjoy.

Mine will be in the mail tomorrow morning. I apologize for running so close to the deadline, my visehas been a very busy place with spring orders. But I found something neat for you all.

I'd like to join if you will have me. Instead of a inspired by pattern I would like to tie the fly as it was dressed by Mr. Sawyer himself.

Unspring the pliers by sliding them sideways, force the two halves apart just a little then return them to proper plier form. This will increase the spring tension some. I've had to do this many time over a few different pair of these.

Congratulations on the decision to go furled. Not a furled leaders are created equally. For the most supple leaders multifilament nylon is about as soft and memory free as can be had while maintain great tippet strength Monofilament and fluorocarbon can be furled as well, these leader tend to keep some memory. I've been building and selling furled leader for a few years now. I don't claim to be a expert on them but will gladly share my experiences with furled leader and their construction