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breambuster

Skill Builder Trout Series Round 3

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Glad the flies are beginning to arrive back with you guys. There are a couple of things I need to let you know about. Henrik is going to do his critique of our Wet Flies, and will be posting sometime late or just after the weekend. He is also going to give us some pointers on tying Dry Flies for our next round. The rules are going to be that it has to be a Classic-type Dry Fly. Thanks, Wetsock, for reminding me about Wulff style flies because I usually think about Catskill flies. But, in answer to your question, "YES," Wulff style Dry Flies will be just fine. I'm just trying to eliminate craft foam, Compariduns, Parachutes, etc, from this round. Our next and final round will be Parachutes.

 

The other thing is that the guys I've got down from this swap who want to participate in the next one are; Vicrider, Fishingbobnelson, Jacktjl, Wetsock, Idaho RC, Stilis & Riff. If your name is NOT on that list and you want to participate, please let me know. I will be posting the new thread either Monday or Tuesday and the due date will be Aug 1. That will give us the month and a half that we have done for the rest of the swaps. If you think that's too long, or not long enough, let me know. If enough guys want to change it, I have no problem with that.

 

Thanks, Guys,

 

BB

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Flies arrived. Nice job everyone.

 

I will not be in the next swap. I need to focus on restocking my own boxes before vacation time gets here.

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The other thing is that the guys I've got down from this swap who want to participate in the next one are; Vicrider, Fishingbobnelson, Jacktjl, Wetsock, Idaho RC, Stilis & Riff. If your name is NOT on that list and you want to participate, please let me know. I

BB

 

BB,

 

I would love to join the next swap for classics. Let me know the rules, and I will figure out the pattern to tie.

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Skill Builder Round 4 has been posted. If you indicated interest, your name is already on the list. If you know of someone who might be interested, please send them an invitation.

 

BB

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Once again, I was kindly asked by BB to give my comments on the flies.

All the flies will fish, no doubt about it, but will they also catch fishermen?

 

In general when considering wetflies, I personally do not have a preference for the wing style. Tip up or down, in or out. Often I let the shape of the feather and the mood of the day decide.

 

Proporties has be posted earlier as a refernece (http://renegadefishers.com/thefly_x/proportions_x.html), and the page do also contain a proportion reference for dry flies.

 

And now to the flies:

Chris_NH

With a tiny fly as this, it can be fairly hard to limit the size of the head, but with carefully managing of the number (and placement) of wraps, it can be done. I would recommend to do the head about ½ the current size (maybe 2/3).
The wing and body is good, really like the way the wing is going down on the sides, but they should go no further than ½-way down. Here it looks like the wing almost encapsule the hook.
The hackle is way to sparse for my liking, and should only extend to the tip of the hook, not the bend.

 

 

Vicrider

This fly is slightly larger then the previous, and it is easily seen how that makes thread wraps better controlled (easier to hit the barn door than the keyhole).

The head is ... read comment on Chris_NH's fly.

The tag would have been nicer with a tinsel not being so wide. It is hard to do fine wraps with a wide tinsel on a small hook.

The tail is a little long (maybe 1/4 too long).

The body is fine, really nice with 5 wraps of rib in very even turns.

The wings.... Normally the width (height) of the wings should be between ½ and 1/1 of the hook gape, here they are very thin.

Also, the wings tilt, only firm grip and re-doing it a million of times will help here. But once you get it right a couple of times, you'll wonder why you didn't realize how simple the method actually is.

Be sure to tighten the thread upwards to limit the torque on the wings.

The hackle is good although slightly long...

 

The second fly is much improved.

The tag is nicer, the ribbing however less precise.

The wings looks better, and it is clear that some practice has gone into it.

The head is also slightly smaller a little smaller and you are there. (Head widths = width of the eye)

 

Jacktjl

This flies first impression is really good.

But then the small imperfections starts to show themselves.

The tail is around 1/4 too long.

The ribbing is close to perfect except one turn that is a little off. Nice work there...

But!

What happened at the front part of this fly?

The hackle is set a little to far back, and then some thread turns making a black area before the wings are set.

This looks less nice on an otherwise nice fly.

Try work on setting the wings just in front (or on top) of the hackle.

Remember you only need two wraps to hold the hackle down, and then set the wings on top of these two wraps.

 

Idaho RC

Once again a smaller fly.

The head, see the first comments.

The hackle is perfect length and volume, nothing to comment there.

The wings and tails are beautiful, just wondering why you tied the wing at the rear and the tail on the top?

Or in other words, the wing is way to short and the tail too long, would have been very good if the tail was tied in as wing and vice versa.

The body, smaller tinsel on smaller flies...

 

RexW

What a beautiful tag. But use a wider tinsel for rib, will enhance the look a make the body seem more "rightly" segmented.

The hackle volume is ok, but mind the length...

The wings... I would say, cut them off and try again. They are very much too sparse, they actual ruin the proportions of an otherwise nice fly (no it is harsh saying, but they really should have been around 5 times more volume).

Head, see fly one.

 

Stilis

This is how it is done...

Head is right size and I like the shape. A little glossy lacquer and it is spot on.

The hackle should have been 1/3 longer to hit it perfect and maybe slightly more volume...

The wings looks very nice, it is almost impossible not to have small kinks when compressing the fibers in the tying in.

 

Riff

A saying is "Large fly, large errors - Tiny fly, tiny errors". I don't find it fully true, but small errors are more pronounce on larger flies.

A beautiful pattern and nice proportions...

Head is good, wing is perfect and tail looks fantastic.

The body of the fly... normally not the worst to do on a wet fly, but here with a lot of classic "mistakes".

The butt should be more sharp edged on the front, and not have visible thread wraps in front.

The tinsel body should be even, what happened at the middle of it?

And then the tie in of the hackle, why is there a thread wrap visible there?

Apropos hackle, the length is too long to my liking.

If I should go nitpicking, the wing could have had a few more fibers, and not set out from the fly, but follow the top of the body and be part of the fly.

When lacquering, be careful not to have lacquer creep up the wing or out on the hackle...

 

Wetsock

I'll keep it short.

Head (see first fly)

Tail is really good.

Body, the visible wrap near the tail is ruining a PERFECT body.

Hackle too long and wing slightly on the sparse side for my liking.

Try to do a roll-wing also if you do this fly again, can look really good on mallard winged flies.

 

BB

Oh, where to start... ;-)

Tail, too long.

Tag and rib too wide

Body is good.

Hackle is really good, maybe a little more volume depending on personal preferences.

Wing, a bit to the narrow side, try twice the width...

Head looks nice, but the visible wraps behind the head (under the wing) not so much...

 

To all.

Keep up the good work, practice, practice and practice.

Don't hesitate to reply here or in PM's if you would like some more advice from me.

And remember, all my critics above is based on how I like the flies, there are no RIGHT or WRONG in fly tying, but some looks are better fishermen-catchers than others ;-)

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As always, Henrik, your comments are invaluable to the process. A discerning eye that can spot our mistakes is of the greatest value to us. Unless we know where we need to improve, we will never get any better. So we all have some tips of things to work on, and we appreciate it very much. I will let you know when the pictures of the Dry Fly Swap have been posted. Thanks for your link to info about proportions. I will post it on the Dry Fly swap as well as here.

 

Thanks for being a part of the team!

 

Take care

 

BB

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Sorry, Bob. That's partly my fault. Apparently Henrik didn't scroll down far enough to see the two additional posts with pictures attached. If he doesn't reply soon, I'll PM him. But remember that his awake time is our sleep time and vice versa!

 

BB

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