Rusty Shackleford

Thanks for all the help guys, I guess I just had my expectations too high.

Sure does set the bar awful high, doesn't it? lol

So they shouldn't float higher than that? I guess I just had my expectations too high, most of mine seem to float about like those except for my Royal Wulffs which tend to want to break through the surface at the tail and really starts to swamp the fly quick, maybe a thicker or longer tail on those? or maybe deer hair instead of elk body?

Makes sense, I've only been tying for a year or so now and this is my first real attempt at tying up some dries that utilize hackle for flotation.

I thought the whole idea was that they ride high up on the surface?

I've been using the various dry fly hooks from Allen, they say standard wire on the package but flyhooks.org has them listed as 1xf and they sure seem like a light hook to me. Maybe I should try a pack of the more expensive hooks for my dries and see if it makes a difference... I figured maybe I'd be good since Charlie Craven's go to dry fly hook is a TMC 100sp-bl which is a 1x heavy hook.

I haven't actually casted one yet, it's winter here. I just simply dropped them in a bowl of fresh water after applying some floatant to make sure my Wulff style flies were going to ride correctly before I tied anymore and realized that they didn't want to float very well period. I then decided to try some of my more heavily hackled patterns like stimulators, EHC, and even a #14 Griffith's Gnat and the hackle on all of them immediately breaks through the surface so the body and side hackle are the only thing keeping them afloat.

They are all tied on Allen dry fly hooks and I tried floatant as well... It's very baffling.

I've been tying quite a few dries lately and not I wish I had taken the time to test one here and there... I decided to try a couple randomly by dropping them into a glass of water to see how they'd float and it turns out not very well at all. Even my stimulators and elk hair caddis, the only thing that really seems to keep them afloat is their wing, I'll include some photos, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what the problem could be.

I have Ephemera #625 and #633 and bu sufficient I just meant everything it's supposed to be and it sounds like what I have is just the thing, here is one I tied up last night with #625 which appears to be a pretty close match to the highly sought after 6A color. I realize the hackle is a bit thicker than traditional but I've never bothered stripping half of the partridge feather for any of my soft hackles and still caught plenty of fish. I will pprobably do some in the classic style as well though, just to try it out

Informative as always, thank you very much

I want to tie some Orange and Partridge soft hackles in # 14 and 16 and I am wondering if the silk thread I have will make a sufficient body or if I need floss to get that translucent color change? Nearly every video I've watched about tying them shows the tiers using thread for the bodies.

I have tried removing most of and all of the tips with no success, I have not tried spinning them though, I always try to keep mine flat when I lay them down. I will try one last time this afternoon using this method and let you know how it goes but I am not hopeful haha. I have never had much issues with peacock breaking on me but I also always snip out the very tip first but stopped twisting them a while ago. I now almost always use one strand and wind it in like any other hackle with the shiny side facing away from the shank and I haven't found them to be any more delicate than those that I used to twist 2-3 together and imo gives a fuller better look and uses less materials.

I did and they have already mailed out replacements, I tried a conditioner soak/wash which did seem to slightly improve things but in the end most of the fibers ended up breaking, I just made it a little farther haha.

I figured as much, how unfortunate