Jerry, Enrico's tying method is nothing new. But applied to his materials, it comes out looking like his do. Before he tied his patterns with Enrico fibers, a lot of tiers, Including myself, tied very similar flies using McFylon. Problem was McFlylon tangled in fishes teeth, sometimes not allowing a good hookset. It was hard to comb- a good indication not to use it.
Do you know those little polar-hair flies that we used under the docks at night? They are tied the same way. They just look different because they used a different material. You remember how they tied it clump after clump right on top the hook, to make the belly-drop-hook with that short shank? ER uses the same method, only an over-and-under, then trim-to-suit method. Also, it's tied very similar to awesome-hair, they way Mike Martinek Jr. showed me, except you don't comb and break the ER fibers- you just trim them with a scissors. Easy way is like this. Tie in a GOOD anchor of thread. Tie in the longest fibers you need at the tail of the fly. Then tie a small strip of fibers , just shorter than the first, right on top. Do not let it roll around the hook, keep it in the top half. Dab head cement at this and the tail tie in. Now tie in an opposing belly color, a little shorter than the top one you just tied. Dab of HC. Tie in another top section, just shorter than the 1st. If you want a fatter or slimmer profile, just adjust the lengths, or you will be wasting your material as you trim the profile. (Depending on how dense a fly, and how long, adjust the length of the shank of your hook, the size, the bend style, etc. You can tie in a stinger, but they will tangle. I can show you a way that it won't, tho.) Keep tying over-and-under bunches one in front of the other, one top, then one bottom, shorter and shorter until you reach the eye. You'll see as you tie how much overlap you need to hide the threads from the previous tie-down.. Use more glue and cut down the amount of thread you use. When you are done up til now, you should have a ragged version of the shape and colors of the fly you want. Comb it out and trim it into shape with a scissors. Snip side hairs to create the profile you want from the side. Enrico ties all profile flies, from what I've seen (very narrow, but tall). I prefer to have some 'in the round' mullet flies, too, like we do with the awesome hair. Once you get the basic shape , it's time for the eyes. Do them just like I showed you for the awesome hair eyes, pinching them both in tweezers or wingburners (unless you want the round body profile) while the glue between them dries dries. With EP's flies, he's looking for that narrow profile, so gluing the eyes back to back (with the material pinched) makes a slim fly head, AND serves to shape the head, and give it durability in the bite-zone. Once the eyes are dry, then comb out one final time, trim, and use markers to get the final colors, spots, bars, gills, etc., that you want. Use a photo from ER's site as a go-by for shape. Remember that in most of his flies there are from four to eight tie-in's of materials, top and bottom. Using shorter and shorter hanks will help avoid waste as you trim. If you want a taller profile than what he ties, do this. (Remember those butterfly-fish flies I showed you with the polar bear hair? Those are tied this same way (long before anyone knew Enrico)). When you tie in the long hairs top-side, make a few wraps underneath and around the hair, gather it and then pull it forward, like you do hairwing flies. This stands the hair up as much as you want, and then it trails back into the pattern. Now make the belly tie-in normally, unless you want a really deep belly. THe next wrap you tie a small amount on both sides to cover the last tie-in spots. Then repeat until done. Use silvery gray on top and white on bottom, mark with black bars, and you have a tall-pattern sheepshead fly, pilot fish, or red bars for a baby snapper. If you change those small side tie-ins to awesome hair, you get a really shiny reflection down the center of the fly. YOu can also tie in crystal flash, flashabou, Awesome-hair, holoflash, whatever you wan to dazzle up the pattern. Call me if you can't get it to come out right. Gotta be tonight- headed to the lake tomorrow. DonObeWan MoKaiBe
