Chuck CV

There are several ways to get this done right - a lot of what we're looking at here is differences in style. And that's a good thing. One method is not "best" for everybody. That said, I hope this helps: The foundation for hackling a parachute, regardless how you do it, is a firm, smooth post. Regardless of material, lash it on, prop it up, bind it real tight, tightening each wrap as you hold the post upright. Then throw a couple of figure-eight's around the hook and the wing base. If it wiggles just a little bit under firm finger pressure, you've done it wrong. Try again. Don't worry about having a wee tad of thread showing above the hackle. Cement the post before hackling, and wrap the hackle into wet cement. Think about it in terms of that 11" brown trout that shreds your fly just at dusk, leaving a curl of hackle trailing from a now-unfishable fly, and it's too dark to tie on another and the hatch is nearly over so you don't have time anyway, and there's still that big one rising in the middle of the pool... ever been there? A drop of cement under the hackle helps you nail that fish. You can dub the body before you wrap the hackle, after you wrap the hackle, whatever suits your style. My preference is to dub the whole body first, then tie in and wrap the hackle, tying the hackle off at the base of the wing, cementing it there and covering the resultant couple of wraps of exposed thread with a wee tad of dubbing wrapped toward the eye. For me, this tends to hold together better than stretching the bare hackle over the thorax to the eye of the hook, (the hackle tends to break at this point) especially on larger parachutes. (As you may have noticed by now, I have this thing about durability.) A final thought: When trying new methods, such as suggested in this thread, tie at least four flies in a row using one method to give your mind and hands a chance to "get it." The seemingly difficult may cause an "Aha!" when you discover, through practice, that it's easy.

I know this is a long post, but I thought it would get the information in front of you better than a link to my website, where it is taken from. Hope it helps - feedback appreciated! CHUCK'S TOP TEN TIPS FOR TERRIFIC FLIES 1. Brace your hands while cutting. Brace one hand against the vise, and brace the scissor hand against it. This can be just one finger leaning against the scissor blade as you cut. Makes for precise cuts. One of my favorite quotes is from Rene' Harrop: "A lot of what passes for masterful fly tying is merely judicious barbering." 2. Cement throughout the tying operation. Cement the thread foundation before you wrap a material on the fly when you tie in; cement each time you tie off. Use an applicator jar with a built-in needle. Result: Sturdier flies. The few extra seconds at the vise translates into dramatic increases in fishing time. 3. Set your bobbin tension light - so the thread pulls freely from the bobbin. Finger pressure on the spool can be added when needed. While the bobbin should not fall and flop around out of control because the tension is too loose, tying with too much tension slows your speed and does not allow for the thread control that produces masterful flies. 4. Try to tie a minimum of a dozen flies of a type before switching sizes or fly types. The last four in that dozen will go faster than the first two, and will be better flies, as your hands and eyes and mind get grooved into the process. 5. Count your wraps. If a nine-wrap body crowds everything else too close to the eye, go to eight on the next fly. Counting becomes reflexive after a while, and your flies will reveal a consistency and refinement in their appearance that is difficult to achieve without it. 6. Prepare your materials in advance. For example, after you've tied the first dry fly in a dozen to check the size, select and trim the hackles. Have your hooks pre-counted and ready at hand. I tie with some materials in my lap, some on my bench, and my tools within easy reach according to the sequence in which I use them. Think about these things as you tie, and develop your own system. 7. Select materials that are fly and size specific. For example, the whitetail deer hair I use for a CV wing is radically different from the hair I use for a Sculpin. Substitute freely as you need to, but if you set out to tie a batch of a favorite pattern, get the right stuff. Material selection is one of the most critical - and overlooked - aspects of fly tying. 8. About speed: Don't try to tie real fast. Speed is a natural by-product of repetition and economy of motion. All of the things I've said thus far add up to speed. I'll only add this: Keep your bobbin close to your work. You'll soon be counting three quick thread wraps instead of three wide, ranging, slow loops. The Rite Bobbin (see below) makes this easy, and fast. 9. Tie each fly from beginning to end. I've read articles at various times that suggest "staging" - that is, tying all of the bodies in a bunch, then going back to do the wings, etc. A number of great professional tyers from my generation (we saw commercial domestic tying replaced by quality overseas production) are still real "speed merchants" behind the vise, and none of us stage much of anything. We can all move on to the next step quicker than we can take the hook out of the vise and put it back in again. There are exceptions (I like to trim my Sculpin heads all in a bunch, outdoors, holding the flies downwind in a gentle breeze), but as a general practice, staging slows you down and inhibits tying flies that have continuity. 10. Proportion, proportion, proportion. You've heard it before. It still bears repeating. Pay attention to it in every fly you tie. Please remember that it has as much to do with the amount and texture of material used (finer stuff for smaller flies) as geometrical relationships. And please don't be afraid to alter the standards for proportion found in most fly tying books. Remember that natural insects don't have hook gapes. They have bodies and legs and wings. Go back to the original design and copy that, as you consider the relationship between wing length and body length, using the hook shank - not gape - as your guage. Also, consider utility. If you need more than the "allotted" 1/4 of a hook shank for the hackle collar on a caddis or a stone fly, use it! Soon you’ll develop your own style, and tie flies that are more effective, aesthetically pleasing, and satisfying to tie.

Ditto the Wooly Bugger as a smaller crayfish pattern. They act like crayfish in the water. I like a brown-olive Bugger, which is close enough to the natural in most cases. Olive body, natural brown hackle and maribou to match that shade of brown for the tail - two plumes, tied concave sides facing each other, with maybe a shorter wisp of red-orange underneath. The hackle is tied in butt-first and wrapped dull-side facing forward. I prefer sleazy neck hackle that triangulates, so that it has shorter fibers and little web by the time you reach the front of the fly. A tad of root beer Krystal Flash under the hackle doesn't hurt either. The finished fly looks awful, but outfishes prettier flies as a small crayfish imitation. That reversed hackle mimics the shorter claws on the real crayfish, adding to the fly's natural silhouette at rest and action. Per the above suggestion re: coneheads, I'll try that addition this coming season - am sure it will add to the natural action of the fly, which works best when pulled in quick 6" jerks with a one-to-two-second pause between. That conehead would make the crayfish tail (head of fly) appear to curl as it sinks. Thanks for the suggestion.

I'm saddened. Syl gave us a lot, in his quiet and always gentlemanly way. My sincere condolences to Hazel. I was about to write to him about his book, Spinners, which gets at this important stage of mayflies better than anything else yet in print, but which I hadn't really studied until this past winter. Independant from him, I have been tying hackle-winged spinners for some time and wanted to share ideas with him - submit a couple of things I had come up with for his consideration, pick his brain a little in a couple of areas. Now I'm saddened that we won't have that dialogue, at last for a while, but all the more grateful that I learned what I did from him, knew him, tied flies with him, and had the privilege of fishing with him. He was always very humble, never full of himself, when sharing what he knew - and it was a lot. The books contain part of it.

Micro chinelle is sold under various names and can be found in needlework and knit shops. I've found the gals who work in these shops to be very helpful and accomodating. Don't be shy. Mohair, for Mohair Leeches, other neat stuff is available in lifetime-supply quantities. Many of the fibers can be combed out and made into dubbing - that's all synthetic dubbing is, really. Comb it out until frayed, then cut to desired working length, then do it again. The coffee grinder isn't a bad shortcut for cut pieces, but the texture of combed-and-cut is nicer. Two of my great fly tying friends, Gary LaFontaine and Cal Bird, frequented yarn shops. A friend of Gary's, John Heller, still visits old yarn and variety shops in his fishing travels, in search of old, dusty skeins of Dazzle Aire, a trilobal first made popular by Polly Rosborough, then used by Gary, and no longer available. If it's an ugly color, better suited for a baby shawl than a beautiful stonefly, we'll dye it - Rit #42 is a good dark olive. Start there. Another great source of materials, though not for everyone (it helps to live in Montana) is roadkill. Sounds gross to some perhaps, but think it through: Salvaging tying material is better than totally wasting the creature involved. You don't need the whole hide - just enough to provide some dubbing, or in the case of deer, a patch of hair from the "away" side. You can choose what you need, usually - front shoulder hair for comparaduns, for example - and post-op treatment is easy. Tack the piece out hair-side down, salt it real good, and come back when it's dry. The backs and breasts of birds that have been whacked offer up some wonderful possibilities for soft hackles. Thank you, Sylvester, for your starling patterns - and all else that you gave our sport. You are missed already.

Here are some others (sorry if I'm repeating what others have said) - Put it in a jar with warm water (1/3 dubbing, loose, fill to top with water) and shake it real good. Dump it out on a piece of screen or into a sieve to dry. The resultant felted dubbing is nice to work with. An earlier poster mentioned cat brushes. Be sure to use the pet brushes that are smaller versions of the wool carders used by hand weavers and spinners: paddles with handles, the paddles festooned with a batch of short bent wires that grab and pull the dubbing. Get a pair. Put dubbing on one, comb and pull through it with the other. They work great. All coffee grinders are not equal. The real nice ones, like Braun, have sharp points that are great for coffee beans but chop the dubbing into short, unusable dust or tangle it around the chopping blades. My old cheapo Mr. Coffee grinder, on the other hand has been renamed remarked with a Sharpie and is now known as Mr. Dubbing. It works great. Dull blades, no sharp edges.

For years I had been trial-and-error designing my own wooden carrying boxes to use at shows and tying demonstrations. Some of them weren't half-bad. Then I met Doug Cooper at a Washington Sportsmen's Show and saw his Bug Box. That changed everything. The box is ergonomically designed, holds everything I need to set up three tying stations (one at my booth, one for the demo theaters, one in the motel) and is extremely well built. It goes with me on camping trips, extended road trips, shows and FFF get-togethers, even took it on the raft for a few float trips for on-the-spot fly design and trial. With the soft bags (tried them, too) I had to pack and unpack at each session - some were easier than others, but still... With the Bug Box, you open it up, set up your vise, and tie. Everything you need to tie with is right in front of you, just as you left it, and within arm's reach. There isn't space enough in the forum to describe all the details Doug has thoughtfully designed into this box; suffice it to say that it's totally ergonomic, and designed specifically to accomodate standard packages of materials - no repackaging required. Here's the link - http://www.thebugbox.net - copy and paste. if you have any further questions, give me a shout. Hope this helps, Chuck

For what it's worth, I've used a good grade of nitrocellulose-based (read the label) clear gloss cabinet lacquer such as Watco for years. Thins with lacquer thinner, usually available on the same shelf of the paint or building supply stores where I buy the lacquer. A minimum-sized container (quart or pint) will last for years. You'd be surprised to learn how many commercial "formulated expressly for fly tying" head cements are nothing but repackaged lacquer. I'd rather pay $10/qt. than than $1.98 per 1/2 oz. The plasti-things (poly, butyl, etc. again, read the label) tend to separate into a useless goo glob with repeated thinnings - and cease to work well in flies well before that. They're especially good for hair work at first, but have limited shelf life when it comes to repeated thinnings. Lacquer thinner does contain some nasty stuff, but (a) it's diluted, and ( the formula for the thinner does not unbalance the lacquer with continued use. MEK and toluene evaporate too fast, thus adding to their airborne toxicity, and don't work well by themselves for thinning cement. I use a turkey baster or a squeeze-type mustard dispenser to mix the lacquer and thinner at about a 3:1 ratio into a Renzetti-type glass jar with a dubbing needle in the seal cap. More thinner can be added as cement is consumed or thickens. The mixing or thinning goes on outdoors. This jar keeps fumes from building up while tying, unless I manage to spill the contents all over my bench. Fortunately, this hasn't happened for a couple of years... Hope this helps, Chuck