Dry winging help

[weight_forward]

I'm tying up some flies to go with a copy of matching the hatch for my old man. Its my first go at dry wings and to be honest I haven't the faintest idea what I'm doing. Does anyone have a link to a decent video / sbs for dry fly wings? I know that they will be destroyed after the first fish and probably not really necessary, but I want to learn how to do it properly.

Here's my first effort, the wings are too skinny and have gone too pointy;



Any help greatfully received.

Steve

[craigie]

hi steve,dave mcphail does a dry fly on you tube mate using quill slips for wings,but to be honest with you mate if i was you i would dispense with the wings & use cdc it would save you a lot more time & effort & subsequently probably more fish,thats only my opinion.cheers craig.

[maharg]

Here are two from Mr Mcphail

YouTube - Tying a Feather Winged Parachute (Ginger Quill) by Davie McPhail

YouTube - Tying a Feather Winged Parachute (Ginger Quill) by Davie McPhail

YouTube - Tying a Lark & Grey Cripple by Davie McPhail

YouTube - Tying a Lark & Grey Cripple by Davie McPhail

Showing how to do the feather slip wings.

[steve collyer]

For something like the Greenwells try gently pulling about 15 or so fibres to 90 degrees from the quill to even the tips up a fair bit to avoid invisible wing syndrome, before tying in 2 opposing feather bunches, split with the usual figure-of-eight binding.
Starling primary feather has quite a forgiving fibre which marries-up quite easily so this should be straightforward.

Personally, I've never been convinced by feather-fibre split (or double-split) wings because in practice after a few casts you wouldn't know what was tied on top of the shank other than a bunch of scruffy-looking fibres!

Bunches of stiff cock hackles or hacklepoint wings are a better bet for a pragmatist!

[weight_forward]

Thanks for the advice lads, the Davie Mcphail videos helped a treat (as always).

Here was my next go after watching the video, I'm happy with the wing, the rest of it is a bit scruffy though, especially the band of thread visible between the hackle behind and infront of the wing , and the ribbing is rubbish



Thanks again - Steve

[emerger1981]

Originally Posted by weight_forward

Thanks for the advice lads, the Davie Mcphail videos helped a treat (as always).

Here was my next go after watching the video, I'm happy with the wing, the rest of it is a bit scruffy though, especially the band of thread visible between the hackle behind and infront of the wing , and the ribbing is rubbish



Thanks again - Steve

thats more lke it mate

[arkle]

Hi Steve, hope you're getting on okay over there.

It may just be me, but did you trim the wing-tips with a pair of scissors ?

Have you considered using a bark brown wax on the thread, to get it from yellow to a sort of khaki olive colour?

Again, it may be me or the lighting but is the rib gold on the one above ?

Try & condense the hackle slightly either side of the wings so that you don't have so much of a gap showing.

[weight_forward]

Getting on well thanks John, I'm finding a bit of time to do some tying to keep me out of mischief until the familly move over at Christmas!

The rib is gold, the dressings I've seen call for gold wire, but I've used oval tinsel instead.

I don't have any dark wax, I'm not sure what I'd get if I asked for dark brown waxy stuff over here! I'm home in a few weeks so will order some to collect then.

Did I trim the wing tips with scissors? - how dare you!!! you'll be asking if I used fixative next That's just how they came out, they are Jay primary, from about half way down the quill.

Cheers - Steve

[arkle]

Why use fixative when there's hairspray more easily available ?

The original fly used blackbird, which is well banned now. Starling was popular for smaller dries but I find it splits very easily most people now use mallard from the lower end of the quill.

If you get stuck for brown wax, you could consider a crayon or even the minutest dab of brown shoe wax that's been virtually cleaned away from your finger tip.