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dflanagan

Wet fly critique

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I haven't tied too many winged wet flies. Just a couple here and there messing around. This one is something I was playing around with tonight but wanted to get some opinions to see what I can do to improve it. A few things I can see right off are: the head is horrible...need to get it smaller, the tail needs work, and there's probably not enough contrast, even with the gold tinsel.

 

Any words of advice? It's all peacock (swords for tail, herl body, and body feather fibers for the wing) with gold oval tinsel and, on this one anyway, red uni-stretch for the head.

 

Sorry for the poor pic. No decent light where I'm tying.

post-59660-0-28420100-1493953990_thumb.jpg

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words escape me :)

 

i think you covered the deficiencies in your own critique of what you posted

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Just a couple of thoughts, you can follow or not:

 

You covered it but what do you do about those things ? I personally, if tying this, would shorten up the tail a bit. The tail also needs to sit on top of the hook shank. I would tie in a few more fibers first off and only two loops of thread initially and let the bobbin hang. The weight of the bobbin will hold the swords while you move them about, be that forward or back and on top of the hook shank. Then tie them down with nice tight wraps going forward. Your body wraps and rib are probably fine.

 

You know you need to move the head forward, so don't tie in your wing fibers so far back, aim for about 1 to 1-1/2 eye widths from the eye as a tie in point.

 

As far as contrast, you could lose that wing material or reduce the strands to just a couple or so, then maybe use gray squirrel or mallard flank fibers, calf tail fibers etc.for the actual wing. Or follow a pattern recipe.

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Dave, thanks for the detailed response. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try again tonight.

 

I didn't even think of using gray squirrel for the wing. I think that would look pretty good. I was planning to use wood duck flank but couldn't find my feathers.

 

Anyone have any good sites or books for rolled wing tutorials?

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Well the Picket Pin uses gray squirrel, you can look up videos on that. Here is one on a variation, you could vary it yet again LOL :

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=tying+a+picket+pin+video&view=detail&mid=C8F28094985F4D8C06FEC8F28094985F4D8C06FE&FORM=VIRE

 

And one of my favorite brook trout catching flies using primary duck feather wing:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=hair+wing+wet+fly+tying+videos&view=detail&mid=FFAF0B031222877A3DBEFFAF0B031222877A3DBE&FORM=VIRE

 

And this fly uses wood duck flank feathers for the wing:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=lemon+wood+duck+winged+wet+fly+video&view=detail&mid=FF3158117793E192BDE8FF3158117793E192BDE8&FORM=VIRE

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That's not a bad fly at all!Dave pretty much covered it and you know the head is a bit large.Either way,that fly would catch fish!

Check out Davie McPhail on youtube.The man is a master of all things fly!He is detailed and an excellent teacher.When he was on the forum many years ago,I learned a ton from him!

All the best!And let us see the next one you do

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Take a look at an Alexander fly. It's close to what you have tied, silver tinsel body and catches fish from experience.

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Thanks guys. Might get back to this one tonight. Tying up a bunch of stuff for a trout trip and his one could go with me.

 

I like that Alexander fly. I'll definitely give it a shot.

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Incase you can't find it or tell from the picture, here is the basic structure:

 

Tag- Red floss

Tail- Peacock

Body- Silver tinsel

Hackle- Dark (Books I've read give several different options for hackle, I personally use one close to black)

Wings- Peacock (With optional scarlet fibers added, I use the scarlet about half the time)

Head- Black

 

Also, if you really want to get serious with wet flies, you should check out the Classicflytying.com. I learned a lot there and there are some great experts that will give you sound advice.

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Actually it's pronounced Alexandra, not Alexander. There is an older version that I'm working on where there is a light turkey wing and the peacock swords on the outside of the turkey.

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Move that wing underneath the hook, work on a smaller head and you would have a decent leech pattern similar to a Teeny Leech. It's tied with peacock, it'll catch fish.

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