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Randyflycaster

Hackle Keeps Twisting When I Wrap

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Crackaig,

When I strip fibers off one side of a hackle stem my goal isn’t the reduction of bulk. I don’t do it seeking a small head. Rather my goal is a reduction in the number of total hackles on the fly – the goal is a sparsely wrapped hackle rather than a heavily wrapped hackle.

 

At least that’s my goal when I do it. I’m not looking for a “given number of barbs” I’m looking for a reduction in the number of barbs.

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With due respect to Dave Huges, I would strongly suggest cutting the barbs off game bird hackles. The stems are very thin and delicate, and it's easy to destroy the hackle by peeling off too much of the rachis. Hen back feathers are another matter.

 

Why strip one side? Easy. For most soft hackles, you want a very sparse collar of hackle fibers. 1.5 turns of a double sided feather is really too much, but 1.5 turns is about the least you can do, so, by stripping off 1/2 the barbs, you can get the right number of barbs. Check out the thread on North Country Spiders for more information on soft hackle flies.

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I won't get in to the strip versus cut argument, except to say that I've done both. (and I have lost count of the number of times I have removed the barbs from the wrong side, cut through the stem or torn the stem to pieces) Endorse phg's explanation for removing the barbs on one side

 

 

And I tie in by the tip. Here's a good instructional http://www.intheriffle.com/fishing-videos/fly-tying-tips-tricks/stripped-partridge-soft-hackle/ although I would take fewer turns of hackle than he does.

 

Somewhere recently (and I'm sorry I can't find the site again), I read about an alternative method, not involving winding the hackle, which on a trial of once seems to work. Cut off the tip of the feather forming a V, tie feather down loosely over the butt, pull feather back through the loop, wind thread around barbs to distribute them evenly around the shank.

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Php. North Country Spider is the tradition I come from, They were among the first flies I tied. I used to fish the waters were Edmonds and Lee and also Pritt did their research, and Stewart fished commercially, before moving to Scotland. If one turn of game bird hackle, un-stripped, is providing too many barbs you are not pulling the barbs back close enough to the tip of the feather. Try holding the tip in a pair of English hackle pliers to get closer to the tip. The hackle pliers also make a useful handle to hold the feather with while tying it in.

 

Mind you I have also seen a video of tying an orange partridge where the tier says "...A couple of turns to hold the hackle back..." and proceeds to put 12 turns on. If 2 (a couple) = 12 them maybe 1 1/2 turns = 9? This was lauded as a good video on this forum. A NCS, of a pattern which doesn't have a thorax (eye side of the hackle), should be completed in no more than 4 turns of thread after the hackle is wound. (That's just 4 not 24!) Wind one turn to lock the hackle and a three turn whip finish. See the way Hans finishes his wet flies for an example of this in action.

 

Rotaryflytyingdotcom, by "given number of barbs" I was trying to indicate two hackles of similar bulk, or number of barbs. If you want a sparse hackle then you will probably want a slim, sparse body and head, this is certainly the case in NCSs. By including more stem to form the hackle you are working against this aim. That's my point. Not the bulk or sparseness of the hackle, which I was trying to indicate would be the same or similar for either method.

 

Just as an aside, how sparse is sparse? Here is a standard Orange Partridge tied with the original Pearsalls 6B silk (no longer available) and a grey partridge hackle with a tinge of brown towards the tip as per the original recipe, tied in the traditional fashion. Is this not sparse enough? I count just 12 barbs.

post-43582-0-42854600-1387531744_thumb.jpg

Examples of this that are more than 100 years old would be bulkier. They were tied on blind hooks with snelled horse hair. The horse hair could be up to the same diameter as the hook shank, making both body and hackle bulkier (as it wound around a wider centre).

 

Having tied many many, many thousands of these flies I have yet to see a valid reason for introducing an extra step in the process, that makes achieving the correct profile more difficult, that could be advantageous.

 

Cheers,

C.

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Charlie Craven shows the distribution technique for soft hackles on his web site under the pattern name "soft hackle". It allows you to use an oversize hackle andd still obtain the barb length you want.

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