Re: [VFB] How many..now sweet question

[mark romero]

BTW Tony, i've watched Mary Dette Clarke (who won a bucket raffle tonight, 
and so did her husband Gene, lol) do what you described so many times. Only 
other thing she does on top of all that is to touch the barbs to her upper 
lip to make sure they're stiff enough. Love it, mark........


From: Tony Spezio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [VFB] How many..now sweet question
Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2004 21:37:22 -0500
Murf,
I have posted this before, here is the way I do it.
Take one end of the hackle between the thumb and first finger in one hand. 
Do the same with the tip end in the other hand. Hold the hackle by the butt 
end vertically and  bend the stem on edge into a "U" with the fingers 
holding the tip end. Roll that "U"  back and forth up and down the stem. 
You will notice that at a point, the stem will kind of jump and the "U" 
becomes narrow. It is like it wants to bend almost in two on edge. From 
there to the tip is the "sweet" part of the hackle. I discard all of the 
lower part of the hackle from that point.   When I tie the hackle in, I 
always leave about 1/16 of an inch of bare stem at the tie in point. 
Starting the wrap on the bear stem, keeps the hackle from twisting. After 
making my wraps I back off a half turn, strip the barbs from an 1/8" or so 
and finish the wrap with the bare stem. Makes for a neat tie off. Another 
thing I do on dry flies with collar hackles. I tie in the hackle dull side 
up, tip fwd, on top if the shank  before I do the body. The body is then 
wrapped or dubbed over the tied in stem and you can finish off with a real 
small head. Makes for a real neat finish behind the eye of the hook.
Tony

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 9/25/2004 4:49:44 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
    Don,
    You are correct about tyers not knowing the "sweet" spot. When
    ever I do
    a demo using hackles, that is the first thing I make a point to show,
    finding the "sweet" part of the hackle. In a lot of cases the
    worst part
    of the hackle is used and the "sweet part of the hackle is discarded.
    Tony
Okay Tony and DonO;
I'll bite.  How do you find the sweet spot on a hackle feather?  I've 
always gauged the feather for size and used that part first.  Especially 
saddles.  The lower part tends to be a bit too big so I save it for the 
next size up fly and towards the tip it gets a bit small so they are saved 
for a size down, caddis palmering or maybe a stimulator collar.
 Don't go too far!  I have another question I'll post soon.
 Murf

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