Another proportion thread

[Alex C. 0]

Ok, I have been doing a lot of reading about proportion the past few days. It seems there are a few common methods of determining the length of the tail on a dry fly.

 

1- Tail = body length

2- tail = 1.5 times the body length

3- tail = shank length

4- tail = enire hook length

 

These 4 seem to have come up the most. So now I ask, what's best? Notice I didn't ask which is right, since everyone has there own preferred perception of what the fly should look like, particular the tail. I am a newbie and want to devolop good habits instead of bad ones so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Sean Juan 0]

Depends on what the fly is susposed to be...

[Alex C. 0]

QUOTE

Depends on what the fly is susposed to be...

 

right now I'm tying Quill Gordons

[conehead 0]

You got it Skunked,

 

There is no right answer. Every pattern is different just like every bug is different. I would suggest following the instructions given by those who have developed the pattern and fished the pattern with success.

 

The web has more patterns than any book you can find (do a search). You can also observe the bugs in you local fishing haunts, if you want to match the hatch. I have tied flies with proper tails (matching the hatch) only to find they float differently. By lengthening or shortening the tails I caught more fish.

 

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Who knows? Remember trout can be so picky at times, and at other times, they eat cigarette butts.

 

Conehead

 

(SHHH...No one knows, but coneheads are not found in the nature, but they work

 

[Alex C. 0]

So if you were tying a fly with the intent of using it for fishing wouldn't it be best to always tie on a tail that is a litle long and trim it on the water to the proportion of whatever is hatching a given day?

[Graham 0]

Hi Skunked,

 

I would not make an intentional habit of tying tails longer to be trimmed later, problem is most tails are tapered and end with a fine tip. Cut it and the fine tip is gone. Conehead has it right, find a good recipe for the fly you are tying and use those proportions. By searching the web you might find patterns and pictures tied or sold locally for the area your fly's will be fished and if there are any anatomical anomalies in these local fly’s, such as unusually long tails, they will probably mention this.

 

Graham

[mgj 0]

the quill gordon is a catskill dry and as such has some traditional proportions differently ascribed to different tiers. in short, everyone does it whatever way looks/performs best for them. that said, I like catskill flies w/ hook length splayed hackle fiber tails so I tie them that way. most dry fly tying instruction books have an illustration w/ a formula of sorts for proportions, prolly a good idea to study and memorize that.

 

I would recommend never trimming the ends of natural materials, it just doesn't look right. unless the recipe calls for it (barr emerger comes to mind).

 

and remember this...nymph tails are short! about the hook gap length. most beginners make them far too long.

 

mgj

[Andrew 0]

Don' trim. It may work, but it really takes away from the appearance of your fly. On a Quill Gordon, go 1x the hook shank. When finished tying the first fly, drop it onto your table. If it lands on the table the way you want it to land on the water you got it. If not, study the fly to see what needs to be changed.

 

A

[Alex C. 0]

my Quill Gordon

 

Here's the quill gordon I tied, the hackle I bought is worthless so I managed to get one of the feathers off, and stopped halfway through taking the other one off so if you guys could ignore that Up until that point I was pretty happy with it, hope the pic is good enough for some harsh criticism

[mgj 0]

the proportions look good on that fly. tail length = body length = wing height.

that said, the abdomen looks a bit fat to me. nice job w/ the quill though, you've got nice segmentation there. the wings look a little "full" to me. I prefer them more sparse. had you hackled that thing up right it would prolly hook a trout.

 

mg

[Alex C. 0]

Thanks, I can't tell ya how happy I am to get the proportion in check. Funny that getting it right is so underrated. Even w/out the hackle it floats pretty well, might not be as high out of the water as it is supposed to but it is level

[mgj 0]

nope.

getting it right is what it's all about. keep at it and it'll become second nature. you won't even have to size hackle anymore.

 

mgj

[sandflyx 0]

there is a tool for doing proportions on dry flies, especially catskill style. Its called the "golden Mean" proportion tool. get one and watch how good your flies turn out. Its made by Flycraft in conn.

[flytire 0]

If you tie them like this one you should be all right

 

http://www.danica.com/flytier/lwilliams/quill_gordon.htm