Harrop/Lawson No Hackle

[steve rudolf 0]

I am a new member and am interested in learning to tie the no hackle with duck wings. Have been tying for over 20 years but have never attempted this fly. The ones used on the Farmington work very well however not cheap to buy.

 

Does anyone have information on tying these flies? Or helpful tips?

 

Does anyone know where to get a copy of Hans Weilenman's step by step photos of Mike Lawson tying the no hackle?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Steve

[mikechell 0]

I can't help you except to say, Welcome to the site.

[NohackleHS 0]

There are two videos in which Mike Lawson ties the nohackle, "Tying Western Dry Flies" and "Tying Flies for Spring Creeks and Tailwaters". I bought these tapes many years ago so I don't know if either or both are available on tape or dvd. I might warn you that Mike makes tying the wings look quite easy, but I had to practice a lot before I could tie the wings as he did.

[Jaydub 0]

Those videos are great if you can find them. There are a number of vids online, but I haven't seen any that really get the same results that Mike does.

[flytire 0]

 

[mvendon 0]

Hi Steve,

 

The link that Norm posted for Davie's video is good. One of the main tips is to use Green winged teal wing primary or secondary feathers. They're not nearly as bulky as mallard quill and are easier to work with on the smaller sized flies. The wing pairs are on ebay just about all of the time and are pretty cheap, usually with a Buy It Now price. Going by memory, the pics that Hans took are OK, but you can't see every detail because the fly and wings are covered up in many shots by fingers. Eric Austin did an article in Fly Tyer a couple of years ago on them that's really good. It's sort of funny, because I remember when he posted on an older version of the Virtual Fly Fisherman tying forum years ago asking questions about tying them. The only thing that I do that's different from the video, is put a loop of thread behind each wing to get behind it, and then pull it forward to help pull the wing out and away more from the body. I usually use a bodkin to separate the wing feathers before doing this so you don't have to keep messing with them with your fingers which will start to fray the wings. They'll take a bit of playing around with, but not a lot. It's better to tie a whole bunch of these at once, or over a few days. Some wings will come out way better than others. It doesn't take much for one to be a tiny bit shorter than the other, one to tear up while tying, etc. Start larger and work your way down. Don't use bulky thread. Keep the wing length short. The wing width is usually more than a hook gap. Hope this helps some.

 

Regards,

Mark

[FKROW 0]

Most FF who experimented with this fly design gave up do to the tendency of leader tippet twisting excessivly. If the fly is not perfectly symetrical it will spin when casting.

 

Regards,

FK

[NohackleHS 0]

Steve,

The approach for tying the wings I the videos above is MUCH more straightforward than the one Mike Lawson uses in his videos. So, in my opinion, you would probably be better off tying nohackles as done in the videos than trying to learn Lawson's approach (if you can even find his videos).

[tctrout 0]

Lots of great stuff said, and I'll throw in that I've used wood duck hen wings, and have done well tying with them. The quality of the duck wings does matter, though this is a pattern that requires practice to tie proficiently. When first learning to tie it, I went through a lot of feathers, simply practicing the wing over and over, cutting them off with razor blades and retying until I got it right.

 

The other piece to note is that this pattern fishes well after getting separated over time (from fish, casting, etc.), thus if your fly doesn't match the pictures/videos exactly, don't worry about it as the fish still love these (just be sure your proportions are on).

 

TC

[steve rudolf 0]

Thanks, guys! Wow, tremendous amount of information. This will be my goal for winter tying, based on the replies it will be a challenging one! They are a fly I have always wanted to tie so will have at it. Flytire, you and are both in CT, I am in Brookfield, thanks for the video links. Mvendon thanks for the extra tips!