Tonights poor effort

[christy27]

Been trying to tie a paraloop fly from Ian Moutters book. Ok the fly is scruffy around the eye and a few bits are trapped but what am I doing wrong with the hackle? Looks like it's been shot!

To few turns? To high up the post? Starting to close to the eye? Any ideas?

Chris.

[flyfisherlady]

His doesn't look that much better to be fair...

Why bother with a paraloop?

Tying Paraloop Flies 3 - Ian Moutter Fishings

[christy27]

Originally Posted by flyfisherlady

His doesn't look that much better to be fair...

Why bother with a paraloop?

Tying Paraloop Flies 3 - Ian Moutter Fishings

Mmm you are right. I have to try to tie them because I bought the book .

[gus262]

It's not that bad christy - Paraloops are a tricky technique, but once mastered, it's a superb way of adding lots of hackle for float-ability and footprint without clogging a fly by making the dressing too heavy. You can go really small with it too, once you've got the knack. were you using a gallows tool as Ian suggests, or trying to do it 'freehand'? The latter is very tricky indeed. I'll have to shoot some pics of some that I've done recently; I only have this one to hand. it's a size 14 march brown type thing with nine or ten turns of hackle.

[andypandy]

Tie a klinkhammer or shuttle or standard dry hackle..IMO standard patterns work better anyway.. fly looks pretty decent too..

Andy

[christy27]

Thanks for the encouragement and kind words folks.

Polly, as said I bought the book so feel compelled to try. I particularly like scruffy flies. The neater the fly the less I like it. Which fits very well with my tying style .

Gus262, I do use a gallows. In fact I had the book for a week or two then it dawned on me without a gallows I may as well pass the book on! The book has proved very expensive, I ended up buying a 720 vise from Phil at the flytyingboutique. A fantastic tool, more of that another day when I can offer a more informed review. Gus, I use uni-floss, 600, 1 ply doubled for the post. Is that a bit over-gunned? What do you use?

Andy thanks, but for the reasons above I have to stick with it.

Any more info much appreciated.

Thanks again...

Chris.

[gus262]

Chris, try something a bit finer for the loop, especially on small sizes. Uni Floss is, (just in my opinion) a wee bit hefty. I've used fine kevlar thread before; still do sometimes actually. The other thing I use a lot of is Tiemco 'aerowing'. You can tease out as little as three strands (which are then obviously doubled in the loop) and it's pretty easy to work with. Ian uses this on almost all of his flies, often referring to it as GSP.

You want the loop under light tension, not enough to lift the hook eye away from the vice, but enough to keep it nice and straight and upright. A trick that I found works well is to take the hackle up the loop and then gently pull the legs of the loop apart; this forces the hackle into touching turns and tidies things up a wee bit - be gentle though! Make sure the first turns of hackle are tight against the base of the post too; too much bare loop there and you'll be pulling the double post over to the eye and then trimming most of your hackle away; not good.

Rather than make your first attempts with the 'headless method' that Ian has started to use a lot (like the SBS flyfisherlady linked to), try a more basic paraloop pattern. Skip past that handsome (if not slightly chubby looking) fella on page 149, to p165 and have a go at the Greenwell basic paraloop - no faff just tail body rib as per usual and then the paraloop. It's an easy tie, you can vary the colours to suit other species, and more importantly it lets you concentrate on the paraloop itself. Honestly, once you're knocking out the basic paraloop confidently, you'll be cooking wi gas.

[christy27]

Originally Posted by gus262

Chris, try something a bit finer for the loop, especially on small sizes. Uni Floss is, (just in my opinion) a wee bit hefty. I've used fine kevlar thread before; still do sometimes actually. The other thing I use a lot of is Tiemco 'aerowing'. You can tease out as little as three strands (which are then obviously doubled in the loop) and it's pretty easy to work with. Ian uses this on almost all of his flies, often referring to it as GSP.

You want the loop under light tension, not enough to lift the hook eye away from the vice, but enough to keep it nice and straight and upright. A trick that I found works well is to take the hackle up the loop and then gently pull the legs of the loop apart; this forces the hackle into touching turns and tidies things up a wee bit - be gentle though! Make sure the first turns of hackle are tight against the base of the post too; too much bare loop there and you'll be pulling the double post over to the eye and then trimming most of your hackle away; not good.

Rather than make your first attempts with the 'headless method' that Ian has started to use a lot (like the SBS flyfisherlady linked to), try a more basic paraloop pattern. Skip past that handsome (if not slightly chubby looking) fella on page 149, to p165 and have a go at the Greenwell basic paraloop - no faff just tail body rib as per usual and then the paraloop. It's an easy tie, you can vary the colours to suit other species, and more importantly it lets you concentrate on the paraloop itself. Honestly, once you're knocking out the basic paraloop confidently, you'll be cooking wi gas.

Gus thanks for the info. I have aerowing so will use it. Also reading your earlier post showing your very nice March Brown you say 9-10 turns of hackle. I've been doing 4-5. I'll up the turns. Ok, I'm off to page 165 and going to stay with it until it's right. I really appreciate your help with this one Gus. More photos later.

Cheers

Chris