Hackle turning properly?

[1st.YearTyer 0]

How do you make sure the hackle stem bends properly when winding on for a dry fly?Mine keep turning and laying flat with the barbs all over the place.

[bluegill576 0]

If I think what you are trying to say is right then try stripping some of the hackle-barbs off of the end where you tie it on and this should help.

[gaeronf 0]

your first 1/2 a turn should be hackle STEM. that should orient it the right way

[1st.YearTyer 0]

Yes the stem part I'm wrapping thread around is free from hackle but it still turns and the hackle lays flat.I've tried the angle wrap/the pinch wrap/the soft loop/the index finger pressure of the back side to tie in the feather and still all the same outcome.It's really starting to get me frustrated.Someone must know something other than what I can read in books.Please help!

[bluegill576 0]

What type of hackle is it? this could have something to do with it if it is not good hackle.

[1st.YearTyer 0]

I'm using chinese cock cape,but if its because it's cheap please explain why?

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

sounds to me like the trouble your having is related to the hackle stem being to stiff causing it to roll as you turn

[utyer 0]

Few Chinese necks are suitable for dry fly hackle. As RRSS said, the rachis (center stem is too thick.) The best dry fly hackles are found on the necks and saddles of domestically grown cocks. These chickens are specifically bread for the production of fine quality feathers. Thinks you need to look for in dry fly hackle: very thin rachis, even barb lenght (all hackles will have some taper, but good quality hackle will a very long taper.) Very little web. The web is the soft dull part on the inside of the barbs. It appears as a dull center section. The web should be no more than 20 to 25% of the barb length.

 

By the time you strip off the unusable portion of a feather from most chinese necks (down to where there is only 25% web, it will be quite short. You may only be able to get a few turns of hackle. Most of the time you will have to make 4 turns with two differnent hackle feathers. A Whiting saddle will be about 12 to 16" long, and will provide enought good length to tie up to a half dozen flies from one feather. Some times the first 3 or 4 will be one size and then you may have to use the tip for the next smaller size hook.

 

Some tips in attaching any haclke. Strip off a few more fibers on the under side of the hackle, that way your first half turn will be on bare stem. Here is a video that may help.

 

Hackle winding

[1st.YearTyer 0]

Thank-you UTYER,thats an answer I can work with.Completely explained.So then my chinese cock capes I'll only use for wet flies and legs and tails.I have packs of Whiting 100's but was hoping not to use them yet until I got better at proportions.Their not easy to find what with all the girls accenting the hair now-a-days.Don't see much point in spending $80 for one color of a good cape to tie drys with.For that kinda money I could buy all the drys in a store I'd ever need.Little disappointed at the guy in the local fly shop who told be I could tie drys with the chinese cape though.Guess I'll go in and have a hockey talk with him about that.lol

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

The Whiting 100's are great. I don't tie dry flies but I palmer a feather or two between my popper tail and body and always used cheap feathers, which work great for the larger poppers but I was having a hard time finding small barbed feathers for my size 10 poppers and decided to try the Whitings. Man, what a difference! With the cheaper feather on the larger bugs, I was having to stroke the barbules back with each turn, with the Whiting, I almost don't have to worry about that.

 

One more thing: If you think tying your own will save money from buying flies in a shop, you best put the brakes on now and just buy from a shop because after almost 30 years of tying and thousands of dollars in materials, I could have bought flies and still have money left over.

 

Have fun and look forward to seeing some pics of your firsts.

 

Kirk

[utyer 0]

I would advise learning to tie dry fly patterns that DON'T use any hackle at all. The Comparadun series of flies uses tailing (moose body, elk or deer hair, or hackle barbs, etc,) a dubbed body, and a flaired deer hair wing that represents both the wing and the legs. The deer hair is usually from a coastal dear, or Texas deer. You want fine deer hair, not the belly hair that is used for spinning deer hair bass bugs. You only really need a light and a darker patch, a 12 pack assortment of ultra fine dubbing, and some tailing. All these things are available, and not expensive.

 

There are several caddis imitations that need no hackle. An Elk Hair Caddis does have a palmered hackle (which you would use your small Whiting hackles for,)BUT you can LEAVE the hackle OFF and it will still float well enough, and I find that even when it gets pulled under, it still brings strikes.

 

Then there is a whole array of foam flies that uses foam for flotation, and rubber legs for movement. These are used often as "indicator" flies to show where your smaller nymph, emerger, cripple or dry fly is drifting. They can and do catch fish, but there is no hacles on most of these patterns.

[1st.YearTyer 0]

Thx UTYER for the advice but the Comparadun is a fly I wouldn't fish,so I definitely wouldn't bother spending time tying it.I have about 200 drys in my box so it's not that I need to tie any.It was just something I was trying and encountered a problem with.I'm leaning towards anatomicals in tying drys.

It's the nymphs that really attracted me to tying trout flies.In my neck o'the woods the available patterns are VERY limited in the local stores.After reading quite a few books I was amazed at what some guys have come up with.So I have a lot of recipes and a lot of ideas to sustain me for a long life of tying.

And forget the foam,I will never use foam when I flyfish.

Kirk here's a couple pictures of my 2nd and 3rd nymphs.

I see I need a better pair of scissors though!!

[JSzymczyk 0]

I will never use foam when I flyfish.

 

NEVER say NEVER when it comes to fly tying!!!

[1st.YearTyer 0]

I will never use foam when I flyfish.

 

NEVER say NEVER when it comes to fly tying!!!

N E V E R ! ! !