This List never ceases to "Amaze" me.
I am endeavoring to learn how to tie dry flies somewhere in the caliber
of many of the more experienced list members. I was actually looking at a
couple of my attempts from the "Eye" end and noticed this "Turbine"
appearance of the hackles. I was wondering if this was the way it was
supposed to be or had I done something wrong.
Now one of our "Masters" comes along and explanes exactly what I was
looking at, what caused it and how to correct it. this is almost scarry.
With the experiance that comes from just reading the comments on the
list I belive that I can be years ahead of where I might be without it.
Don and all, "Thank You" for the never ending "School" here on the list.
Jimi
Mel,
I agree with all of what you said, but would like to add a little to this
portion.
I have always reverse-splayed my hackles before tying dry flies. Just grab
the hackle by the tip and run the hackle backwards through your pinched
index finger and thumb, standing the barbs out to the stem 90 degrees. It
may take more than one swipe. Don't know who I learned it from, been doing
it for over 30 years. On older neck hackles (before dry fly saddles), this
was necessary to find the 'sweet spot' on the hackle- the portion without
webbing and the right length (size) before the final tapering. One would
'grade' a neck based on the length and quality of the'sweet spot'. On most
necks this 'spot' was less than 2" long, and many only an inch. ( I
remember well having to use 2 hackles to tie one fly!) A side benefit was
that tying with the barbs sticking straight out from the stem eliminated the
'turbine-twist' of the fly and thus twisted leaders.
AK is correct in that today's stiffer hackles can cause twist. But it is
easy to eliminate the twist and still use the stiffer high quality hackles
if you splay the barbs. It is easy to demonstrate. Tie a fly without
splaying the hackles, and then tie an identical one with splaying. Look at
the fly from the eye end. The un-splayed fly will have the barbs in the
'turbine twist' (not coming out directly from the center of the hook, but
tangentially) and the other will not (with the hackles sticking out directly
from the hook center). Some old-timers just used to grab the whole hackle
end and give it a good counterwise pinch-twist to straighten the hackles.
The a penetrating dab of head cement held it in place. I can't tell you
what a joy it is to tie with today's genetic saddle hackles as opposed to
the necks from 25-30 years ago.
Another thing to consider is barb curl and cupping. Even reverse splaying
can't straighten out a curved barb, which results from a cupped hackle.
These will make a 'propeller' look on the front view. Today's genetic
hackles have this little unwanted characteristic pretty much bred out.
When you look at a neck or saddle next time, especially a 100 pak, look for
the part of the feathers that have been splayed by the graders in order to
size them. Do this to the whole hackle.
Hope this helps,
DonO
