Blue-Green Tube Fly

[letumgo 0]

After taking Jens' class on tying temple dog tube patterns, I have been itching to try my hand at this style fly. I just picked up some icelandic sheep hair for wing material.

 

Here is my first attempt at a temple dog style tube fly with icelandic sheep for the wing. This is the first time I've used this stuff. I love the color and texture of the hair. It has a very fine texture, it's easy to work with and does not give a lot of build up of material where it is tyed in.

 

Unfortunately I did not leave enough room at the front for the metal cone head I intended to add. I crowded the front too much to fit the conehead onto the remaining tube. I had to coat just build up the head with tying thread and multiple layers of red Pro Lak. The fly is probably too light to fish very well. The overall length of the fly is roughly 3.5 inches (~ 90 mm).

 

Can you guys give me some guidance with what I need to change on this fly to match the real temple dog style? Are the proportions right?

[Fly_guy_stu 0]

I'm not really an expert at temple dog style flies but here's my understanding...

 

The wing shape (although yours looks fishable) could be improved by varying the lengths of hair more. The shortest hairs are at the bottom of the wing and the longest at the top. This helps to form a tear drop shape. The first few layers of the wing are usually tied in forward then pulled back to help for the trademark hump in the wing so the MEDIUM length hairs are tied in first then the SHORTEST. This bunch is pulled backwards into place so that the shortest section is underneath (following me?) then i tie in the final longer stage of the wing.

 

For my temple dog wings I follow my own simple rule for each wing stange. The length of the wing required is pre determind. The LONGEST section of hair in the wing will be this length. The MEDIUM section will be HALF of this length and the SHORTEST will be HALF the length of the MEDIUM section.

 

Thats just my personal understanding, hope it helps but as I said, I'm no expert at tying this style of fly.

 

Stu

[letumgo 0]

Fly_guy-stu - Thank you for your help. I understand your description and will incorporate them into my next attempt at this pattern. I really appreciate the help.

[Fly_guy_stu 0]

No problem, I'm glad it helped.

[Scandinavian-Tyer 0]

I think you did really well at your first attempt at making a temple dog tube fly. Nice job finding a substitute for the long fox or dog hair used for these flies. Even many scandinavians with the right materals for the wing would not have done as well in their first attempt.

 

I would use a longer hackle for the body. The fronthackle is perfect.

 

It is correct that the wing is tapered in order to create the teardrop shape of the wing when wet. If the wing is created by 3 layers of hair the 2 first layers is tied in with the second layer longer than the first. Then the fronhackle is tied in. the third and toplayer of the wing is tied in reverse at the butt of the hair, with the tips pointing forward. Then that layer is bent backwards and secured with 6-10 wraps of tying thread and a smal amout of superglue is added to the tying thread ( not the wrapping at the root of the wing!!!) and wound a few more times. When dry the thread is cut. This way the build up at the front that prevents a conehead to be placed is avoided since the securing of the hair is very short. It is possible to make temple dogs tube flies without the conehead. done like I described the head wil be very small and neat but I will use more wrapping.s.

 

It is possible to weigh down the front of tubes in other ways than using a cone. I have come up with a very elegant new way of doing this that I will describe in a later post.

 

But keep it up

 

 

 

[letumgo 0]

Scaninavian-Tyer - Thank you for your kind words on my first attempt and your excellent guidance. I will certainly try tying the hair wing in three separate layers as you describe. I did not remember to top layer of hair being tied in facing forward and then folding it backwards to minimize the head and prevent problems with the cone head. That makes good sense and may have prevented the problem I had with fitting my cone on the fly.

 

I an looking forward to seeing you new way of adding weight to the front of a fly without using a cone. I will keep my eyes open for your posts in the future.

 

I really appreciate your help.

[Scandinavian-Tyer 0]

Letumgo; The Temple dog style of the modern Scandinavian tubeflies are tied with the last layer of hair tied in reversely as I described. But there are certainly a lot of other ways to tie these tubes, with different combinations of hackles and wings. And who is to say one way or the other is more correct than the other? As long as the tying in point of the wing does not create too much build up of the tying thread, that will prevent the placing of the cone. I have a preference for this way of tying the templedog wings since I believe the wing becomes more durable. But like I said there are other ways to tie these tubeflies. Lately I came across these US Steelheaders webpage that shows another way to make the conehead tubeflies: There are step by step pictures of the tying the tubefly and they get a good result. This will probably be helpfull to others that were not so fortunate to be able to see Jens online class.

 

http://www.flyfishusa.com/newsletter/121006/#Tube%20Fly

 

 

Only thing I would like to ad is: Be really careful with the superglue , since it can destroy both hackles and the wing if applied in excess.