Spring's wiggler

[burninbriar 0]

Hi there, I'm tying the spring's wiggler from the data base and it says to wrap the hackle forward " palmered " as you would ribbing. Does this mean to wrap it in the oposite directoin of the chinille witch was wrapped just prior ?

I dont have the squirl that the recipy calls for and I'm useind deer instead, it seams real straw like. I think the tail might be too big in length and thickness ?? Also I am going to try one with my dogs hair, he is a black lab and boxer mix and his shoulder hair is strait , black and about 1 1/4" long. Has any one used dog hair ?

Any help would be appretiated. ( I hope the photo is sized ok )

[burninbriar 0]

Sorry , I goofed on the photo.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Palmered just means that the hackle is wrapped forward in evenly spaced wraps to the head of the fly. Personally I dont like using deer hair for spring wigglers, its a bit to stiff to work with IMO on these when you tie in at the tail it wont fold back out of the way like squirrel will do. Pick up a squirrel tail they are only about $2.50.

 

That dosent look bad at all. I would maybe take just a tad out of the thickness in the tail, and I would do a few less wraps of hackle on the body, but thats just my preference though. That would for sure catch a fish

[burninbriar 0]

This one is done with my dogs hair. I know I really need to get some squirl but I'm working with what I have for now. What I would like to know is does the hackle look better.

( the dog hair is really slippery and hard to work with )

[Steeldrifter 0]

Yeah I like the looks of that one :headbang:

 

 

Like I said though it may just be my personal preference, but I dont like to heavily hackle my spring wigglers. That one is just like I tie though, looks nice!

 

Do you not have a fly shop near you to get any squrriel tail? if not let me know where you live and I can send ya a few to give a try.

 

SD

[burninbriar 0]

I live out in the middle of nowhere and the nearest fly shop is about 40 miles away. I apreciate youre offer and may take you up on it if I cant find any squirl. I have a sister and freinds in the area of the fly shop so it gives me a good excuse to get up that way. Who knows, I may find a fresh road kill on the way there. LOL

[Steeldrifter 0]

if you cant then just say the word, squirrel's cheap so I dont mind sending ya a couple so you can see the difference

[Redleg 0]

I'd shy away from the deer hair for anything that is suppose to sink too. Dogs can be resourceful, you're not the first to try it. Another way I like to tie them (keep your eyes open for anything that can be used for tying and snag it!) is useing the squirrel for the tail to keep the bushiness, but for the wing case I like to use strands of pheasant tail. It's easier to handle. Wrap the hackle the same direction as the body. Let it lock in between the body wraps.

[lil_flygirl101 0]

welcome to the fourm!!!!!!

[burninbriar 0]

Well , I got a fox and a gray squirl tail , they did not have any died collors but thats ok for now since I'm mainly trying to learn procedure. My first few attemts were total failures. I started this time with 6/0 thread as per the recipe but I could not get the hair to tighten down , then I went back to the 8/0 thread and had much better results. This may also be due to the fact that I used less hair. I think I still might be useing too much hair ? Also I think I might have taken the body too close to the eye of the hook , it was very cramped tying the head.

Does the tail look odd or did I get a brain warp from useing the wrong material the first time ? It looks like a pony tail to me. Does it matter that I used 8/0 instaed of 6/0 thread ?

 

 

[Steeldrifter 0]

Looks about dead on to me bud :headbang:

 

I very rarely use dyed squirrel tail on spring wigglers myself, I would say I use fox colors 90% of the time for them. Head looks great. Thats the way the heads are on this pattern. You pull the squrrile forward then trim it at about a 45degree angle rearwards, then make a few wraps over that. Looks like thats what you did to me so thats great.

 

 

6/0 or 8/0 is fine, I use both. Just what you feel comfortable with.

 

:thumbsup:

[Carver 0]

Looks great to me to! I tie with alot of 8/0 just because I like the finer diameter and can control where it goes better and maybee because I tie mostly small flies but like SD said it's all personal preferance.

[burninbriar 0]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. The thing I dont like about 8/0 thread is I some times get too rough with it and it breaks. I think I'll try another with the 6/0 and the amount of hair I used on this one to see if that makes a differance, then I want to try a scud with some Thin skin made by wapsi. I just picked this stuff up and it seems pretty thick and stiff but I'm hopeing it works for me.

[burninbriar 0]

I tryed the 6/0 thread again and determined that I either used too much hair , or more likely , I let the wraps loosen when I tied in the chenille and hackle. This one came out much better except for the hair going over the back is not uniformly tight. I need to practice a lot and I should be alright. If I did this for a liveing I would starve to death. The most time consumeing part for me is getting the hair tied in.

[burninbriar 0]

Thought I would add an update to my springs wiggler. This is what it looked like after a long fight with a 9 lb steelhead. After a little resusitation and removeing an old foul hook from his tail, he swam off happily.