Para Post & Poly yarn -- Help!!! Please

[ibrown]

Hi,
I am attempting to tie Klinkhamers. I have Orvis Para Post & Polypropylene Floating Yarn, neither of which is correct for tying Klinkhamers according to OE video. He states that Hans said the Poly yarn should be crinkled not straight because it hold air better. Now my question is, do others use the crinkled version of Poly yarn or am i just being to picky and the Para post will do. I am not a will do type of person and would like to try and tie the fly correctly as stated on OE video. The Poly yarn i have is straight and i use it for spinners. The Para Post is to soft (floppy), whereas the Poly yarn that OE uses is a lot stiffer and crinkled.
Can anyone help me with this please. I am going to the BBFI show and was going to ask OE the question.

Thanks
Ian

[arkle]

There are as many different answers/protagonists for each material/method as there are tyer's. Why don't you ask Hans VanK himself, after all HE invented it & will probably have less of a crowd around him than Ollie did last year.

[Former member 2]

I'm not going to claim to be any authority on this at all, but have found that material sold as Poly yarn for a few quid, though quite straight and giving a neat finnish an on the finished fly, turns into a awfull flared mess when wet and remains thus after the fly is dry. Whereas using the rather expensive aerowing for posts and wings, the material holds its original shape and floats well.
I am sure that there are other suitable products which are cheaper, but for me aerowing does the job.
If you aim to tie a batch of flies up try wetting the product your using and see whether your happy with it before you invest lots of time on flies that you will later regret tying.

[scubacrazy123]

+1 for Aerowing. It was recommended to me, and it is the only one I have used. Does it's job brilliantly, stays afloat forever. Not cheap, but a little goes a long way.

[jemo]

I have tried lots of materials for klink wings including aerowing.During my experiments i discovered that the woven white curtain cord when unravelled makesa durable crinkly air holding wing that stays upright all day.Some cords are limper than others go to your local fabric shop and see. believe you me its worth a try

J

[vgb]

I recently switched from Antron to Funky Fibre as I found the same problems. Its cheaper than the aerowing (which I have not used) and works extremely well.

Fly Tying Materials from Funky Fly Tying

regards

Vince

[andreb]

If you want a very small post for small klinkies, I find that calf tail is a good option. I dont generally tend to use synthetic materials on small dries, but if I am tying larger para post dries, say down to a size 14, I use a 3 or 4 mm polystyrene ball. I cut a very small patch of white nylon stocking, and wrap it around the polystyrene ball. and tie off the open end, so the ball is completely wrapped in the nylon, with a few millimeters of nylon hanging out the tied end. I then tie it to the hook, and work a thread pillar up from the hook shank to the polystyrene ball, the nylon around the ball, pulls tighter, allowing you to make an effective pillar of about one to two millimeters high...enough to hackle quite nicely. The fly never sinks, and is really visible. It also colours quite nicely with luminous marker if you feel the need.

[noeyedeer]

Originally Posted by andreb

If you want a very small post for small klinkies, I find that calf tail is a good option. I dont generally tend to use synthetic materials on small dries, but if I am tying larger para post dries, say down to a size 14, I use a 3 or 4 mm polystyrene ball. I cut a very small patch of white nylon stocking, and wrap it around the polystyrene ball. and tie off the open end, so the ball is completely wrapped in the nylon, with a few millimeters of nylon hanging out the tied end. I then tie it to the hook, and work a thread pillar up from the hook shank to the polystyrene ball, the nylon around the ball, pulls tighter, allowing you to make an effective pillar of about one to two millimeters high...enough to hackle quite nicely. The fly never sinks, and is really visible. It also colours quite nicely with luminous marker if you feel the need.

Great idea!
I've been experimenting with tying my own emergers with polystyrene balls and having had similar experience to the above (and tried also the "foam post" Klinkhammer) this sounds unsinkable.

For a more natural fly, I read that snowshoe rabbit seems popular, but haven't tried it yet myself.

[Chris Reeves]

Given that the Klinkhamer floats on its hackle and all of the wing post is above the waterline, I don't think that the material used is all that important. HVK originally tied Klinks for very big fast water where the fly got drowned quite a lot, that's why he used the crinkly fibres for a post, I suggest that in the UK there are very few waters that will require such a big, bulky fly. (originals were size 8 and 10)
I tie a lot of Klinks in sizes 12 down to 20's for clients, I have used a variety of Antron, Polypropelene and other materials for the post. The bottom line is this, if your hackle is tied properly the wing post had no effect on the floatability of the fly. So I choose my wing post for the following reasons.

1) Ease of use. Try and find a material you can work with.
2) Visibility, I tie Klinks with Pink, Yellow, Orange posts as well as white and black. Ita amazing how often one colur stands out better than all the others.
3) Aesthetics, A tatty post detracts from the look of the fly, not important to the fish but very important to a buyer.

A couple of final points,

Firstly do not use anything for a wing post that will overbalance the fly and cause it to fall on its side thus negating all the trigger points that you tied it for.

Do not over dress the post, it acts like a litle propellor and you'll get terrible line twist when casting

hope this helps

[teeser]

the best stuff to use and i believe the stuff O.E. uses in his vids is supplied by wapsi - siliconised polyprop yarn comes in a multitude of colurs but you need little more than white and a pink or orange flouro colour. I think you can buy it from lakeland fly tying, it splits easy for different sizes of fly and it really is the muttses look no further.