Gary: Try to tie in the hackle in the opostie direction that you now use. What I mean by that is, if you are starting at the back of the fly to "palmer" on the hackle, hold the hackle tip toward the front of the fly and the butt towards the bend of the hook. Place one or two wraps over the stem, then bend the stem over itself so that the tip is now extending over the bend. Put two more wraps over the point in which it bends and cinch down ( straight down ) tightly. You can then tie on what ever else you are adding to the fly.
If you are using the hackle for floatation on a dry fly, you can use the same technique. I sometimes tie in by the butt and sometimes by the tip. If you tie in by the tip, hold the hackle in one hand and with the other stroke down the length of the stem while just grasping a few barbules on the tip. Seperate these so that you have a nice clump to lay flat against the hook and put some wraps over them. This gives you the extra holding power of tying the stem directly against the hook shank instead of over the barbules. Some barbules may be slippery and alow the hackle to slide out. You can then stroke the feather back into it 's regular position. Another great way to hold a hackle to the shank is to use your scissors and cut off some of the barbules as close to the stem as you can, but just leave enough showing that it will grasp the thread as you wrap over it. This gives the thread something to hold on to so to speak. You will find this technique very helpful especially when you are tying on by the tips. There is no reason that you cant just add a small drop of glue, or head cement on to hold the hackle in place either. I've never seen in print that you can't do that. Alan Di Somma Phoenix,Az. http://www.azod.com http://www.azflycasters.org/ "Deep Thoughts" What do you get when you put 32 Arkansas cheerleaders on one room? .....A full set of teeth. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2002 7:21 AM Subject: Re: [VFB] A question for the pros. > > I have too many to list, but my main one is getting the hackle > locked in preparatory to winding. I can usually get it done > but never with just a couple of wraps like you see in the > videos. And keeping the stem from blocking the eye > of the hook is part of the challenge. > > Gary > > >
