--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > What is your deepest tying failure? Not so much a problem now as it used to be, but consistency (especially with dubbing density) would have to be my response. This demon was put to rest by tying hundreds of dozens per year and by using a Nor-Vise.
> Mine is that I can't tie > dry flies well enough to > fish. They either fall apart, are so ugly they are > scary, or they sink like > rocks. So I buy (shudder) most of my dries. > Not being able to afford the right hackles > don't help though either. Sure you can. 1) Always work near the breaking strength of the thread, which should be the smallest diameter possible for the task at hand. This should help keep them together longer. 2) Don't worry about "traditional" proportions of dry flies but rather focus on the proportions of the natural you are trying to imitate (Mother Nature doesn't follow the "shank length" or "1.5 times the gape of the hook" rules when manufacturing mayflies, etc.). Maybe your's probably aren't ugly as much as maybe they just don't conform to the "traditional norm" 3) As for flotation, there are two applicable principles: surface tension or Archimede's Principle. The former relies on something being very light and not breaking the cohesive molecular bonds by penetrating the water's surface; the latter relies on displacement of the object's mass in the water's surface. Keep these in mind when choosing materials and use very light wire hooks, hydrophobic dubbing materials and small diameter thread. I probably just exposed my ignorance on the concept of flotation as I am not a physicist, nor am I in the Navy, but that's what I have been able to ascertain as the laws applicable to what we are doing on our vices. 4) Try Antron yarn for winging material lashed onto the hook with an X pattern at the same location you would normally tie in wings. Tie in a 3 or 4 inch piece in the middle of the material and after running a couple of "Xs" over the material, finish the rest of the fly (tail, body) and tie in the hackle behind the "X". Take 3 or 4 wraps behind the Antron, and 4 or 5 in front. Tie off the hackle, whip finish and clip your thread. Now grab both ends of the Antron and lift them straight up and clip to what you deem to be the appropriate length. The fore and aft hackle, if wrapped contiguously in very close wraps, will keep the wings upright. The colors I use are white and gray for duns, chartreuse for a Hi-Vis pattern and black for fishing on "silver water". I intentionally do NOT post around the base of each wing because by not doing so makes turning the pattern into a spinner much easier (if a spinner is needed, the wings can be pulled down so they are flush with the water surface and then the hackle is trimmed top and bottom). Bushy Antron wings float well, are highly visible and best of all, there's no messing around with proportions before you tie in the material, as you would have to do if you were using hackle tips, mallard flank, calf tail, etc. Antron yarn is available in a lot of places and Byard probably has a good supply. As a rule, the densities of my wings are one strand of yarn (not one strand of Anron) for 14 and smaller, double strands for 8 and 10 and for 12's I go either way depending on what mood I'm in. These patterns, tied with really dense wings, will probably float if you use cheap grade 3 hen hackle. Hope this helps, contact me directly if there are any questions and please don't make too much fun of my interpretation of the physical laws, unless I surprise even myself and am correct. Regards, Don Johnson ===== http://www.geocities.com/salmn8r/caddisforkids.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site http://webhosting.yahoo.com/
