Beginners stab at a wingless wet.

[Senecalaker 0]

Hoping to get some input from some of the guys on the site. I tied a few of these the other night hoping to get some interest from some Brookies in a small stream north of me. Hackle is Olive india Hen, Yellow danville 6/0 thread, with a peacock herl thorax and some wool yarn dubbed on red danville thread done on a spinning block. I know they will generate interest from the brookies but was hoping to get some criticism as far as scale and bulk of the flies. I have thick skin, been married for over 20 years , so please any thoughts you could share would be appreciated. These are on a size 16 hook.

[Cold 0]

Looks really, really good.

 

The only (very minor) suggestion would be to move your thorax just a smidge toward the head to make the head smaller overall.

 

Great work.

[Dave G. 0]

Yep same take as Cold on this fly. And yes, I think they should generate some brookie interest as well.

 

You could cut out a good 1/3 of that head in moving the thorax ahead a bit. Hey, how about a bead head, I'm seeing black tungsten on there !

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Very nice -- other than the head issue already mentioned, I wouldn't change anything. In fact, you've inspired me to tie up some of these for the brookies here in Michigan.

[Lesg 0]

The head might be a tad long as everyone has said, but the brook trout around here would be all over them. I've been thinking about tying some old style wets, winged and wingless. Thanks for the inspiration.

 

Les

[Senecalaker 0]

Thanks for the feedback guys. When tying them, I thought the thorax and hackle was much closer to the eye than it actually was. I try to be very conscious of not crowding the eye so I will work back to it. On the vise, it appeared to be much closer, but pictures don't lie. Thanks again for the positive feedback.

[Lesg 0]

I always try not to crowd the eye, but I normally do forcing me to backtrack halfway through a fly. I wish I had the issue of not crowding and having a head a touch too long. Brook Trout rule!!!

 

Les

[Dave G. 0]

I started using a McPhail method and run my thread to the eye and back at tie in of a material and you can kind of better gauge how the head will form before you get too many materials tied down. And you might even back up 1 step till you catch on. My suggestion ? Watch a few of his videos on various nymphs and wet flies and you will catch on quick. He uses that technique a lot, mostly so he gets a tapered head I suppose. If you listen to him and you can understand what he is saying, you will see that he is always gauging things. And he may not tie your exact fly but you can always take something away to use by watching him. Just a suggestion.

 

Edit: Another thing to do is to start your wrapping one eye width back from the eye. Do your whole build from there back and then that leaves the eye width for the head. No guessing !

[thinkingredneck 0]

Good job. Overall good proportions. Heads will plague you at times, but fish don't seem to care.

[Senecalaker 0]

 

 

Edit: Another thing to do is to start your wrapping one eye width back from the eye. Do your whole build from there back and then that leaves the eye width for the head. No guessing !

I will use that tip, thanks , I'll have a few for critique after the weekend

[notenuftoys 0]

I started using a McPhail method and run my thread to the eye and back at tie in of a material and you can kind of better gauge how the head will form before you get too many materials tied down. And you might even back up 1 step till you catch on. My suggestion ? Watch a few of his videos on various nymphs and wet flies and you will catch on quick. He uses that technique a lot, mostly so he gets a tapered head I suppose. If you listen to him and you can understand what he is saying, you will see that he is always gauging things. And he may not tie your exact fly but you can always take something away to use by watching him. Just a suggestion.

 

Edit: Another thing to do is to start your wrapping one eye width back from the eye. Do your whole build from there back and then that leaves the eye width for the head. No guessing !

 

I was tying some pheasant tail flymphs this weekend, and still fight the problem of a big head (my wife would agree). Some of this I attribute to the thread (UTC 70 denier) building too quickly, the rest of the problem is technique.

[Dave G. 0]

 

I started using a McPhail method and run my thread to the eye and back at tie in of a material and you can kind of better gauge how the head will form before you get too many materials tied down. And you might even back up 1 step till you catch on. My suggestion ? Watch a few of his videos on various nymphs and wet flies and you will catch on quick. He uses that technique a lot, mostly so he gets a tapered head I suppose. If you listen to him and you can understand what he is saying, you will see that he is always gauging things. And he may not tie your exact fly but you can always take something away to use by watching him. Just a suggestion.

 

Edit: Another thing to do is to start your wrapping one eye width back from the eye. Do your whole build from there back and then that leaves the eye width for the head. No guessing !

 

I was tying some pheasant tail flymphs this weekend, and still fight the problem of a big head (my wife would agree). Some of this I attribute to the thread (UTC 70 denier) building too quickly, the rest of the problem is technique.

 

Do you untwist the UTC 70 before building the head ? In tying a fly the thread tends to twist up into more of a cord or rope than flat floss ( UTC 70 is like a flat floss in nature, multi stranded). It's a natural tendency to just keep building the fly, then tie off the head. But if you stop, let the bobbin dangle from the fly and give the bobbin a counter clock wise spin and let it unwind, I think you will find the thread is pretty flat then. Maybe you already do this, I don't know that part. I will say that in my experience UTC has quite lot of spread when flat, more so than build.

 

That said, I like the build quality of Danville 6/0 for average flies but it breaks easier than UTC 70 or UNI 8/0, both of which are about the same size as Danville 6/0. Or you might have to move to the Veevus line of thread where there are more size options. Some folks here like Veevus 12/0.

[Senecalaker 0]

well here is an update , they came out a little better. The gills liked them for sure.

 

[Lesg 0]

LOOKING GOOD !!!!!