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Bimini15

Brittle peacock herl

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So I tried to do something different (for me) today and see if I could tie a decent bugger on a size 12 hook. Well...

 

post-52874-0-68535100-1515203448_thumb.jpeg

 

I used peacock herl from an eye feather (from a Halloween costume) instead of chenille to keep things to scale but it kept breaking on me until it was too short for the fly. The rest you can see...

 

What am I doing wrong with the herl? Is it really that brittle, should I wet it first...?

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I'd steam it over a tea-kettle at least give it a try. The stuff can be brittle, especially on the tips. You can also wrap it with thread to make it stronger.

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I kinda combine Tom's three hurl with flytire's thread and twist that all with my finger and thumb. Not quite as strong as the loop method shown inn the video but it works pretty well. Often coat the hook with lacquer just before applying the hurl also and that won't mix well with wet hurl.

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Besides the good ideas mentioned already you might try the rotary feature of your vise ( assuming you have that) to aid in spiraling the herl forward on the hook. This offers even tension and smooth wraps.

 

Good choice on body material incidentally, fish getting material ! I tie buggers down to size 14 using rabbit fibers for the tails and herl bodies, either grizzly or natural hen hackle.

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if the tips keep breaking tie the herls in by the butt ends. the fish wont know the difference on a wooly bugger

 

trim an inch or so from the tip ends of the herl to get into a more robust stem of the herl

 

using 3 herls turn one around so the you are tying 2 by the tips and 1 by the butt

 

throw away shitty herls and buy new herls

 

tie one in at the eye and one at the tail; take your thread back to the eye. wind the herl at the eye to the bend and then secure this by winding the tail herl to the head, then secure with thread wraps.

 

swipe the hook with a little crazy glue before wrappin herls forward

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Have you tried tying the herl in at the eye wrapping the thread over the herl to the bend and then wrap the thread back up to the index point? Then a little zap a gap on the thread herl body, wrap the herl to the index point.

 

http://www.charliesflyboxinc.com/flybox/details.cfm?parentID=220

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I like to do as others have suggested with the wrapped herl on thread, but with a wire, really reinforces it.

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... and if all that doesn't work, the herl may be just too old and brittle to use. Not sure if one can rejuvenate fly tying materials (like feathers - beyond what is mentioned above) that is very old and brittle. I know I'm not getting any younger. Ha!

 

BCT

 

Actually old brittle natural materials like feathers and herl can be "rejuvenated" with hair conditioner.

 

http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/washing-your-materials

 

"But my single best improvement was to use hair conditioner (AKA hair balsam).

After rinsing out the shampoo, I simply took my wife's ordinary hair conditioner, rubbed a suitable amount into the feathers, distributing it over the whole surface as well as into the depths and on the stems and left it there for a couple of minutes. After this, another rinse, and then on to the drying process. This made the feathers extremely soft and pliable, but a the same time strong and less prone to break."

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