ibookje

'CDC stay in front of the fly'? You wrap 3 turns of CDC hackle behind the wings and 2 in front of the wing and then wrap 2 turns of cock hackle behind the wings and 3 in front of the wings. This basically traps 2/3rd of the CDC hackle at the back of the wings. No, I don't understand what you are trying to achieve here…

Maybe Gab can make a new video with time saving alterations of this fly? This way the fly design changes are limited yet it save time and maybe also material costs (like the wings)? So what do you think Gab?

Very nice! But also a very laborious fly. A few questions: Why tie wings as the wings are buried in the CDC and partridge hackle? Why use touch dubbing method when you roll the dubbing with your fingers afterwards? Why not hackle a CDC feather after the cock hackle? Might result in less cdc fibers trapped under the cock hackle.

The genetic hackle industry, we'll probably only Whiting, has gone too far with the optimizing. It's almost impossible to get decent numbers of hackles in size 10 and 12. Silver grade capes are for instance 16 and smaller like in the size 24! Most dry flies I tie are 12 and 14 and the occasional 16. Yes having some midge hackles is nice too.

Hope it helps!

I'm in The Netherlands. However Heerlen is a long ways from where I live. From Heerlen you have great access within 1.5 hours drive to some of the best fishing destinations in Germany (the Eifel area) with tons of great fishing.

I prefer DeWitt fly boxes for my dries. No crushing of hackles in these boxes.

I too love my Vision hip waders. In fact I wear them 90% of the since I see no reason to wade above my hips.

Check out JW Young reels too

Well, I'll drop a little bomb here Humpy is one of those flies which is all about proportions. I've been tying Humpies for about 20 years and I've come to believe that the Humpy looks 'better' if it's tied on hook with a slightly shorter shank than a regular dry fly hook (for example TMC 100). This can be a weird discussion since a 'shorter hook' depends on what makes it 'shorter'?… The proportions of a shorter shank hook depends on the balance between shank length and the hook gap. I have tried many different shorter hooks, like the Partridge Captain Hamilton L3A. However the gap was just too large for me. I also tried a more contemporary hook like the TMC 102Y (like Hans Weilenmann used above) which also has in my view too much a gap. I also prefer the classic Perfect bend than the Limerick bend. So, after many experiments I came with a simple solution: tie the tail slightly 'earlier' at the hook shank rather than near the hook bend. Tying the Humpy on this 'shorter' shank makes the fly look much better in proportion: how the amount of material that tail, body and hackle fill up the whole silhouette. I prefer to measure the length of the hair needed twice by measuring the hook shank. The first time measurement I 'pinch' the hair with my nails a bit so it leaves a mark in the hair. This mark lets me know how much body should be tied on the hook to make sure I have enough length for the wing.

The thing with ceramic bobbins is that they don't survive a fall. But what I really don't like is that they seem to 'stick' a bit so thread tends to move less freely making using thinner threads prone to breakage.

I have been using Frank Materelli's bobbons for more than 10 years (?) and they are in my view the best. For bass / salt water flies I'd say try the bigger FM's material bobbin. As for cutting thread, try to keep the bobbin straight / in-line with the thread when pulling / tightening the thread rather than having the thread stressed at the tip of the bobbin nose as it makes an angle with the thread. This way the only reason thread breaks is because you pulled beyond its thread strength.

Mine is the Alien Bug: http://bassbug.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_bassbug_archive.html

They sure are! Takling about sparseness vs robustness (shape?): this is an interesting aspect of the Catskill dries. I think there is room for personal interpretation. Sure, there should be a balance between how much material is used on the fly vs keeping the proportions right. After all the fly should float as a dry rather than sink in beautiful sparseness Jay

Well thank you! My english is improving I hope!