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Fly Tying
Jokey

I have a confession to make....

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.....I tie backwards. Yep.....I wrap thread toward myself when I am tying. I taught myself how to tie when I was 11 and the cheap instruction book I was using had hand drawn illustrations that didn't help much and for some reason I started off wrapping towards myself and have continued on ever since. It's a running joke between my fly tying buddies and a couple of co-workers (I work for a fly tying manufacturer in Canada). I have seen a few folks over the years who tie the "wrong way" like myself but not too many. I have trained myself to tie the conventional way but unless I consciously start off tying that way I automatically revert back to the way I have been doing it for 27 years.

 

One advantage I have found to tying this way is that I find I great visibility is seeing the slight spin some materials get when you tie them in. By wrapping towards myself I always see if I have anchored something not quite to center.

 

Is there anyone here who ties that way? I'd like to think that I am not alone.

 

Cheers!

 

J

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There was a similar post a while back, not about tying backwards per se, but tying lefthanded (which, from the point of view of the thread is the same thing). The issue was whether twisted threads came untwisted, or untwisted threads became twisted. I pointed out that it's similar to line coming off the end of a spinning reel... every turn about the hook results in adding a twist of 360 degrees to the thread. If you're one of those guys that adds about 30 turns just to tie off the body, you could possibly see some issues with getting twisted.

 

If so, one solution is to periodically let your bobbin hang free and spin itself to unwind the thread.

 

Have you experienced anything like this in your tying?

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By the way, if you're really Jokey, you're gonna fit in real well here.... we've got quite a few humorous characters :-)

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no need to confess anything

 

the only person affected is you, not the rest of us

 

nobody really needs to know how each of ties flies

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Have you experienced anything like this in your tying?

 

No...never had anything like this happen. I usually tie with parallel bonded thread and have never noticed an issue.

 

 

 

Flytire....I know what you are saying. This was mostly a way of introducing myself to the board in a fun way. Figured I would stop lurking and get in the game.

 

Cheers guys

 

J

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What ever works for you. When I was younger I skateboarded some (was never very good) and I skated mongo style. That is to say I pushed with my front foot rather than my back. It worked just fine cruising around and I could really get moving fast very quickly but I always got grief for it and I had to learn to push normal to do some tricks and for skating in a skate park. Sounds like you've got the same thing going on.

 

Are there any flies you cant tie wrapping counter-clockwise?

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Don't feel bad about lurking.... everyone here has done it at least once.

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I too have been a lurker for quite some time, but will jump in with my first post. I am left handed. When I started fishing with a spinning rod 55 years ago, there were no readily available left handed reels. I purchase a Mitchell 300 right handed reel, cast with my left hand and turned the rod 45 degrees so my right hand cranked the handle of the reel horizontally rather than vertically. I got a load of grief over it, but it worked for me. Later, when left handed and reversible reels became common, I sprang for a left handed reel. Lo and behold, I could not make it work for me.....felt unnatural after all those years of my odd retrieve. So, here I am today, fishing with same old right hand retrieve Mitchell 300 when I use a spinning rod. Any port in a storm.

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If you tie backwards, what way does your vise face. I ties thread wrapping away and hook on my right. Lefty's and reverse wrappers find it better to have hook on their left I am told.

 

Does your toilet flush clockwise or counterclockwise? You might just be Australian not strange. Right Li'lDave?

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The hook is on my right and I wrap towards. Always seems to work well for me.

 

Not Aussie......Canadian....so strange enough! ;)

 

Cheers

 

J

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I'm the same... I've been told several times by so-called "professionals" that I am doing it backwards. I also learned from books when I was a kid, and for whatever reason I guess it just felt natural to me. It has not seemed to matter to the thousands of fish I've caught over the decades... any and every style of fly, any species of fish.

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It doesn't matter whether first the thread is going away from you as it passes over the top of the hook shank and then back under the hook or it first moves toward you when moving under the bottom of the hook shank and then passes over the top of the hook shank. But a wrap must alternate in moving toward and away from the tier.

 

I can't help it. I am literal minded.

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You're all WRONG! How can you possibly ever expect to catch a fish with a fly tied backwards? Its a well known fact that no decent fish would ever be deceived by a BACKWARDS fly! I'm sure the government or somebody has done a study on this and the overwhelming evidence was that unless you tie the right way, (the way I tie) you will never catch a trout or a bass. Sometimes you might catch a carp but that's all. It all has to do with the proximal vortex or something (I read that somewhere). That's why you hardly ever catch fish with those flies that are made in Asia or Africa. Most of them are tied backwards or lefthanded on purpose to keep us from catching fish. Don't get me started...

 

post-35746-0-09156800-1426943568_thumb.jpg

 

 

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