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hankaye

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For soft hackles, and flynphs you will need just a few materials. They will catch fish in both warm and cool water.

 

Materials you will need for soft hackles. Standard shank hooks in sizes 8 through 14.

 

Either the Mustad R70-3399, or R70-7957. Both a heavier wire. The J Stockard 207 hook is pretty similar.

 

Rayon Floss: Danville 4 strand. These colors (8, 12, 47, 60, 901, and 92) should all be good. Or get the 15 color pack.

 

Remember when you wrap this floss, you take about 8" off the spool, and wrap ONE strand per fly. I like to start at the front on larger hooks, and wrap back to the hook point, and then back to the front.

 

Wire ribs can be added to any soft hackle.

 

For the soft hackles, Hungarian Partridge is the best hackle; however, many other soft feathers can be used. Hen backs (3.95 at J Stockard) are a good economical choice. If you want to purchase a Partridge, get the whole skin. The loose feathers are usually pretty large, and not that much use.

 

Dubbed fur bodies are also used as either for the thorax area, or the whole body on soft hackles. The fur thorax should be the front 1/4 to 1/3 of the body, If you use a dubbed fur body keep it sparce and thin.

 

Peacock herl, pheasant or turkey tails are also used for soft hackles as either a thorax or full body.

 

A soft hackle should have a very sparce hackle, one and a half to two turns is plenty.

 

Flymphs are tied with natural fur bodies, and a tail of hen or partridge can be added. Hackles when used will be palmered (spiral wrapped,) through the front 1/3 of the body. Build a very slight taper getting thicker toward the front. If you can pick out the fur and guard hairs enough no hackle needs to be added, the flymph can be just dubbed fur.

 

On the flymphs, I use a longer shanked hook from a 1xl to a 3xl. Colors from light cream through dark brown, Yellow cream to amber, and many shades of olive as well as gray and black are in my boxes.

 

Here are a couple of examples of first some fuzzy bodied flymphs, and then a couple of soft hackles.

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utyer,

 

Thank You...

 

hankeye

 

Now I have to figure how to pay this forword :eek:

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Hankaye

 

Utyer has given you great info.

 

Here’s some ideas for some patterns and a shopping list for materials that should cost around 25 bucks or so.

 

Substituting feathers from an Indian Hen Back for more expensive Partridge

 

Materials

Pack of wet fly hooks size 12 (25 for about 5.00)

Thread Black Danville’s 6/0 Flymaster (per spool about 1.50) or Uni 8/0 (per spool about 2.25)

Danville’s Fine Gold Wire (spool about 1.50)

4 Strand Rayon Floss your choice Orange, Yellow Olive (per spool about 1.00)

Hare’s Mask (Natural) (about 4.00)

Pheasant Tail (2 feathers for about 2.00)

¼ oz Strung Peacock Herl (about 3.00)

Mottled Brown Indian Hen Back instead of partridge (about 4.00)

2 mm Black Thin Fly Foam ( two about 4” x 4” pieces for 1.00)*

 

* down the road, you can get this 2 mm foam much cheaper from a crafts store like Michael’s etc where a pack 30 sheets of assorted colors 8 ½” x 11” pieces go for about 6.00

 

 

Patterns

Listing materials in order of tie in:

 

Partridge and Orange (or Yellow, or Green)

Hook: wet fly size 12

Thread: Fire Orange, Black

Hackle: Brown mottled hen, (substitute for partridge) 2 turns

Tail: none

Rib: Fine gold wire

Body: 2 layers of floss

Head: thread

 

Partridge and Peacock

Hook: wet fly size 12

Thread: Fire Orange, Red or Black

Hackle: Brown mottled hen, (substitute for partridge) 2 turns

Tail: none

Rib: Fine gold wire

Body: 3 or 4 strands of peacock herl tied on shank, twisted into a rope and wound around shank for body.

Head: thread

 

Partridge and Pheasant Tail

Hook: wet fly size 12

Thread: Fire Orange, Red or Black

Hackle: Brown mottled hen, (substitute for partridge) 2 turns

Tail: none

Rib: Fine gold wire

Body: 3 or 4 pheasant tail fibers tied on shank, twisted into rope and wound up shank

Head: thread

 

Partridge and Hare

Hook: wet fly size 12

Thread: Fire Orange, Red or Black

Hackle: Brown mottled hen, (substitute for partridge) 2 turns

Tail: none

Rib: Fine gold wire

Body: 2 layers of floss

Head: thread

 

Hare’s Ear Flymph

Hook: wet fly size 12

Thread: Fire Orange, Red or Black

Hackle: Brown mottled hen, (substitute for partridge) 3 turns through thorax area (front 1/3 of hook)

Tail: none or a few fibers of hen

Rib: Fine gold wire

Body: dubbed fur from hare’s mask

Head: thread

 

Pheasant Tail Nymph

Hook: wet fly or nymph

Thread: black

Tail: 3 pheasant tail fibers, don't trim butts

Rib: Fine gold wire (original calls for copper wire)

Abdomen: Butts of fibers used for tail, twisted and wound to 1/2 point of shank

Wingcase: Tie in another 6 tail fibers by butt end, don't trim tips

Thorax: 3 strand of peacock herl tied in and twisted

Legs: Pull over tips of pheasant tail fibers and tie down, separating and tying down so there are 3 'legs" on each side

 

Hare's Ear Nymph

Hook: wet fly or nymph

Thread: Fire Orange, Red or Black

Tail: Pick out some guard hairs from hare's mask, and tie in as tail

Rib: Fine Gold wire

Abdomen: Pick out fur from Hare's Mask for dubbing

Wingcase: (Optional) Tie in 3-5 strands of peacock herl with excess extending over rear of hook. Original calls for a wingcase made from a duck wing quill slip.

Thorax: hares mask dubbing, dubbed fatter than abdomen. After thorax has been dubbed, pull peacock herl over thorax and tie down

Head: Wrap neat thread head and tie off.

Legs: Pick out fur from underside of thorax with bodkin

 

 

Simple Foam Beetle for fishing top water for panfish

Hook: Wet fly size 12 (because of the foam, this will still float)

Thread: Black

Foam Shellback: Black 2mm foam strip

Body: Peacock herl, as in Partridge and Peacock

 

Steps for a simple foam beetle:

 

Cut a strip of foam about twice the length of the hook shank and ½ the thickness of the hook gap.

 

Hook in vise, start thread

 

Tie in foam on top of shank at front of hook and bind down towards rear, leaving extra length coming off the back of hook for now

 

Tie in peacock herl at front of hook and bind down with thread to rear of hook above barb.

 

Advance thread to front of hook.

 

Twist herl into rope and wrap up to front of hook. Bind down with thread and trim herl.

 

Fold excess foam over the top of the herl body and bind down at front of hook, forming a big segment about 2/3 the length of the shank, and smaller segment about 1/3 length of shank

 

Make head under foam and behind hook eye and tie off

 

 

There's ton's of other patterns that you could add next.

 

Good luck and have fun

 

Mark

 

 

 

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Utyer has given you great info.

 

Removed to save space by hankaye;

 

Good luck and have fun

 

Mark

 

Thank you both.

I can not express how grateful am for your answers to my question(s). You have raised the curtain from in front of my eyes and I can now see what it is I'm about to become involved in ... :eek:

 

Thank YOU both

hankaye

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You might want to check this out too http://community.flyfisherman.com/fly-bench step by step instructions with close up pictures for a variety of flies. With the the techniques they show you will learn the skill to be able to tie most flies and learn how different materials are used.

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You might want to check this out too http://community.flyfisherman.com/fly-bench step by step instructions with close up pictures for a variety of flies. With the the techniques they show you will learn the skill to be able to tie most flies and learn how different materials are used.

 

That was some of the stuff that was driving me nutz. They give ya a list of stuff to tie with but don't tell ya ( beginners any way), what the parts of what, the stuff is from.

That's why I have been so happy with the answers that I have gotten here. The folks here have actually taken the time and expended the brain power to think back to when they were starting out and the explanations that were necessary to understand 'what's what'. Like describing a circular staircase without using your hands...( ya have ta know what concentric means).

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Hank.... the info Utyer supplied is important. Advise you to copy it and save it for reference. I would however caution you as far as guys telling you what kind of flies you should tie. You'll get a jillion different recommendations. What you will want to tie is the ones that catch your target fish (i.e., do you want to catch trout, or bass, or bluegills, or saltwater fish.... or what?)

The sites Utyer sent you (flyanglersonline) provide you a selection of beginner flies that are good for learning various techniques, and also will catch lots of different fish. You owe it to yourself to go through at least some of those, and tie more than one of each. Don't keep tying a fly if it doesn't look right (like the picture).. instead, stop and unwrap it and start again. Practicing something and doing it wrong is no practice at all. The first fly on FAOL I believe is the wooly bugger, and that fly is probably the most basic and productive fly you could have in your fly box. So go for it, and get tying.

Good luck and keep us informed. If you can, send us pics of your ties.

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Wow! Thanks utyer. That info is really helpful to a beginner. Great stuff.

 

Hey that's cool!

 

nwtblaster, you found a 5 year old thread and learned from it. utyer and peregrines wrote some long and valuable posts, and you dug it up. I hadn't seen it before, but I'm glad you brought it to our attention.

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Good stuff. Kudos to you, utyer, for taking so much time to help out a newbie. And also to nwtblaster for bumping this to the top of the beginners section.

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I agree that this should be a pinned topic, possibly pruned a bit to contain just the post with the bulk of the info. I know this would have been a big help to me a couple years ago.

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That Partidge ( or Hen) with Peacock herl body and rib is a killer fly when used most everywhere. Besides a Woolly Bugger and or Woolly Worm it's one of my top most used generic water flies. They are worth tying and easy to tie. Trout, panfish and even some bass will like that fly.

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