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Bill_729

Jim Misiura "Professor" fly; paired mallard-flank wing question

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I never posted a fly photo here, so I thought I would take this opportunity.  I watched Jim Misiura's YouTube video on the "Professor" fly.  Not have any fine brown hen feathers, I tied some "chicken coop floor"-quality hen hackle (that came with my beginners fly tying kit) under the wings.   I keep them in a box along with other feathers that "deserve to be discarded, but you never know..."  lol

These are size 10, standard wet fly hook. I had my wife take a profile and overhead view. Honestly I think they look better in real-life, except in the 3rd one I "crowded" the eye a little by "being clever" and temporarily moving the thread position  to the right while I was tying the body to give me more room (bad idea). 

But I had trouble making "paired mallard flank wings".  In Jim Misiura's video, he appears to take both "wings" from the same side of a feather, and then says to put the concave sides together. I tried that, but the wings sort of had a different orientation, coming from the same side and all.   I tried all sort of things as my mallard-flank wings split apart. I used multiple flank feathers and made something of a matching puzzle out of it.

I think it's not easy to tell exactly what the flies look like from the photo, but I'm on the road to learning how to work the photography too.

Thank you in advance for your interest in my post. I'll welcome any feedback anyone would care to offer.  By the way, after I was finished I recalled someone "painting" feathers with lacquer (or something along those lines); would that apply to this type of wing?  And yes, I did use yellow thread colored with a black marker at the end, as in Jim's video (I would have never thought of that!).  Except, in the 3rd one, the thread broke and I really did finish the head off with black thread...

Regards, Bill_729

 

 

IFly1.thumb.JPG.2d1d07e85baca6e971faef11ee200491.JPGFly2.thumb.JPG.0602e4aa9b918a17a93cc55a19ddf8f1.JPG

 

 

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Hi regarding pairing wings and how to tie them to the hook check out Davie McPhail's you tube channel he ties a wide variety of flies  he also ties classic flies which is what you need   to tie in your wings also try and get a copy of Helen Shaws book fly tying materials. tools. Technique. With life size sequence photographs from the tyre's side of the bench this is quite an old book but this book was produced and written by an award winning fly Tier and tutor hope this helps sorry for the rant

Kind regards Steve 😉 

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the second fly in your photo looks pretty darn good and should be the example you use to tie more of them (actually the all look good and should fish well)

wet the fly and see if the wing fibers meld together

its not how the fly looks when dry in the vise its when the fly looks wet to the fish

heres a photo of a wet professor i found on instagram

wet-professor.jpg

 

if i were tying one i would cut a strip from both sides of the featherfor symmetry. but thats just me

mallard.jpg

 

 

 

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If he used the same feather for both sides then that was a center feather.  most times you will need to pair your feathers (left & right) to receive the same results. nice work for your first post. mallard flank is a great feather to learn with it is inexpensive and you will learn a lot about grading feathers and tying techniques. 

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after watching the video he does use one side of a flank and folds both concave sides together. I have never done this I have used matched sides from left and right in the same manor or the tip as a whole. the fish will probably not mind either way. I will probably continue matching if nothing else it is good technique for material that you should match (quills, bronze mallard, goose shoulders) "gray" mallard is inexpensive play with it and have fun tying.

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He does take two slips from the same side of the feather.  After watching the video, I would guess that the difficulty is coming from getting the first pinch wraps correct, in order to  make the wings collapse, more or less like and accordion at the tie in point, as I understand the technique.  He sure does make it look easy in the video.  You're flies look good though, and as flytire says:

2 hours ago, flytire said:

its not how the fly looks when dry in the vise its how the fly looks wet to the fish

here is a  better video explaining the technique.  

 

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Your flies will work, but obviously you are not satisfied.   I agree with Flytier, use your best as an example for future ties.  You might want to check out Dave Hughes book WET FIES, especially his work on hen fiber wings.

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First of all, thank you for all of your thoughtful replies! 

My mallard flank came from a very inexpensive bag of feathers that mostly seem to be "one-sided" (not symmetric).   I'll fish through the bag and see if I have any better/center flank feathers (I didn't see any yesterday).  DarellP was right that I was not completely satisfied, but I don't believe I've ever used flank-feathers for wings before, so I have little right to complain.  It did surprise me that Jim Misiura took both wings from the same side of the feather, and I had wanted to run that by you guys!   I have had better luck with (paired) mallard wing feathers (for the "black gnat", say).  It seems like a very  important rule  is to *get it right the first time*, which also applies to these flank-feather wings which seem even more "fragile"!

I'll put my flies in some water and see what they look like there.  And I'll definitely take a look at the resources that were recommended!

I enjoyed and appreciated the feedback.  From my photos, I thought my first fly was the best, so I found it interesting that you liked the 2nd one.  My "process" was to match up the concave backs (a tricky-step that is not shown in Jim's video!) and the tie them down directly.  I should probably try wrapping twice and then pulling down, as I was shown once upon a time. I may have done that with the 2nd fly. 

I bought a box of size 14 hooks at the same time that I bought these size 10 hooks. So, I'll probably take another shot at this fly very soon!

I've never used an "indicator" when fly fishing, but maybe I'll collect one to try with this fly.  My preference is usually to fish on the surface when conditions allow, but I'll see what my local Crappie think of the "professor"!  : )  Thanks for the camaraderie!

Bill_729.

 

 

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i chose fly #2 because in the top view of the fly , the wing fibers are not splayed out like #1 and 3. the wing fibers are in-line with the hook shank. but remember its the appearance of a wet fly that the fish is going to see not the dry one in a fly box

from don bastion website

an article on bronze mallard or mallard flank wings

read the entire article

https://donbastianwetflies.com/2012/03/11/bronze-mallard-wings-part-ii/

 

another simple method is the "reverse wing" technique

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/oldflies/part416.php

a quick tie using the method above

Professor-800.jpg

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Thanks Norm that is a good read, I'll have to try it, may save a lot of bronze mallard from the waste bin.

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yes its a good article on bronze mallard but is also applicable for teal, gadwall, mallard flank, woodduck etc feather wings

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10 hours ago, flytire said:

from don bastion website

an article on bronze mallard or mallard flank wings

read the entire article

https://donbastianwetflies.com/2012/03/11/bronze-mallard-wings-part-ii/

 

Flytire, I  "confess" that the "wings" of the flies in my original post were "hand ripped" off of the quill!

Between "straightening" the wing fibers, and and cutting from the the feather with a pair of scissors, we'll see whether my next hatch of flies comes out better (how could it not)!

Cheers, Bill_729

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