Henrik Thomsen (DK)

No worries, they will catch fish. However I would highly recommend you to ask someone near to teach you. The fly itself is not a beauty... (as my spelling). Try work with red tag pattern in size 10 and when that looks ok, move on to palmered flies in that size. But first of all, find someone near and get some teaching. :-) I still go to seminars for learning new tricks etc.

I personally use the sink as a trash bin when cutting deer hair. Open the water full power for a few seconds prior to cutting, and the moist in the air will kind of bring all the cuttings down into a pile in the sink. The moist also makes it easy to gather all the cuttings and throw them in the trash. /H

Dave, When you find out.. Try use half of that. ;-)

Use less dubbing and more "force" when wrapping. And then as you write... Practise. :-) H

Thought it, therefor I put the :-P behind it... was not ment as anything but a joke. However writing texts with smiles of irony and a bit of dark humor is hard ;-) Have fun /H

BB, First, thank you for your kind words. Second, you are not arguing... But I am... :-P Now, back to serious. On parachutes the hackle is typically one or two sizes over what you would use for classic dries. For classic the hackle should be about 1,5 times the hook gabe. For parachutes the tip of the fibers pointing towards the rear should almost reach the end of the body/start of tail, but not fully. Therefore hackle size depends on placement of wing. ;-) Number of turns... When doing a classic dry fly, a decent number of turns should be used to give enough area to hold the fly on the surface tension of the water. More tyrns for rough waters. For parachutes, the complete hackle (one round) gives the surface area to keep the fly floating. Theoretical therefore one turn is enough... But one thing is theory another fly tying. I normally do 3-4 turns depending on hackle fiber density. Hope this info helped a bit. :-) Br, /H

Ok, everybody. A long time has passed and a lot of skills have been practiced. All in all I can say that it does look a lot like all did get something out of this exercise. Not let alone the thread control, the most needed skill in any fly tying. The critic from me this final round: Stilis 1: Not much to add here. Maybe the small dent/gap between the body and the thorax. Something that can be avoided by making the body a bit too long and the cover the extra with a little of the thorax. Stilis 2: Again a super fly. The nit picking here is following; I see a thread wrap on the thorax, could be covered in dubbing. The few stray fibers sticking up from the hackle could be removed ;-) jjs89yj: Tail: On back of hook, move to top. Body: Ok Wing post: Ok Hackle: a mess... Try to tie in the hackle on the post with a few turns, then put each turn of hackle between the previoud and the hook moving downwards. Finally secure the hackle with 2 wraps on the post and whip finnish (using a thin thread or twist it to make it round and thinner... Wetsock: Tail: Goes around hook? move to the top. Body + thorax: Very nice Wing post: also ok Hackle: A bit to dense to my liking, but nothing wrong... a bit of tidying up to remove the strays would be good. (Stray hackles pointing down breakes surface tension and sinks the fly more easily) L'il Dave: Tail: A little too soft looking Body: would have liked it more hard dubbed Thorax: Good Wing post: A bit to short for my liking, wings tend to be at least the length of the body on may flies Hackle: Fibers too short and hackle to dense for my liking, but very nice wraps done... Fishingbobnelson: Tail: Missing :-P Body: A little smoother would be nice Thorax: Hmmm, hard to get a good impression of, but I would have made it a bit longer Wing post: Good Hackle: see comments to jjs89yj Idaho RC: Tail: falls down the side of the hook, and fibers looks a little on the softer side Body: Buggy but nice Thorax: Fine Wing post: good Hackle: a tine bit too long and looks again as beeing a little to the softer side of dry fly hackles. Vicrider: Tail: Placement good, try to do a single turn underneath the tail to spread it out fan like in one plane. Body and thorax : not too much shape but ok. Wing post: Good Hackle: Good, but a little tidying up would make it even nicer. Also to spread down the hackle pointing up, a foam thorax could be used (BWO Dun here: http://www.wideopen.dk/webshop/the-fish-the-fly-1-dry-flies/) jmchaughan: A bit more hackle and a broader wing will make this hopper look even better. The body could also be a bit heavier, but not needed. Mogup: Tail: Same as many above, tails belong to the top of the hook ;-) Body: Really nice Thorax: Looks like it could be done better with another material than the vinyl-rib (?) Wing post: Nice ​HackleS: Very challenging doing two hackles on a parachute, but ok here. Again a bit tidying up always helps. BB: Tail: It's on top of the hook, Hurray :-D :-D Body: Looks good Thorax: Same Wing post: A bit more length will make the fly even looking better Hackle: To many turns and too short fibers (only a little too short;-) ) + the standard comment - tidying up helps ;-) Hope you all can use the input I've given. All flies will fish and catch, but the aim is not to catch fish but fishermen. And remember, thread control and limited use of thread is the way forward. Think of your thread as the most valuable material you have, use it only as thick as needed and only the number of wraps needed to secure your material, other is overuse... (Read: misuse) Have fun and keep up the good work. /Henrik

Fibers from a laquer brush. Need to taper to a poit at the tip. Therefore laquer brush. H

https://youtu.be/PdFaDBHKvo8 (Not my video) Try use EP fibers (or similar) for the body. And maybe add a red spot of dubbing at the body, and even maybe a small clipped hackle for legs instead of the fibers used in the video... And you might get: https://www.instagram.com/p/1DEqLOq1p4/ (my first go at the mysis.)

Wetsock Your welcome. I do this of solely egoistic reasons... It is the only way we will be more fly tyers (with focus on tying) around the globe. There has long been a tendency (at least in Denmark), that fly tying is only to create lures to catch fish. The old trade of hand has kind of losts its meaning, and i'm really sad to see people gluing on plastic parts to a hook and call it tying. A little like my math teacher in first grade said. You will NOT get/need a calculator before you know to calculate by hand. If we learn to tye flies good, it is much easier to experiment with premade vings, legs, shellbags etc. And remember only a very small part of fly TYING is to catch fish. The most is about catching FISHERMEN... ;-) /H

Jokey. Depending if it is an European or African barn swallow... ;-) H

Pj2. Glad to help. And hadn't seen it as quill body... Might be the camera ;-)

Btw. The cheek are from the red spot of a Barn swallow (hirundo rustica). /h

Good spotted the bump. The light in the mirage tinsel actually creates this bump because I wind yhe tinsel from head to tail and back. It isn't actually a bump, but the mirager tinsel changing direction of turning. ;-)

Wolfrider_dk is my instagram. Uses it for flypics almost exclusive... Not all equally nice. Follow if you like. H