The Beaconsfield 2/0 (Hardy)

[s fontinalis]

Worked again from the image in Frodin's book, pushing my limits with this multiple butted and flossed fly.
The manes were also something new to me.

Overall, generally happy, however, the whole thing needs a rightward shift on the hook - started the tip too far back and as a result everything is out of whack.

I whole gutted it, separating the strands of gut and clipping them to different lengths, and this may have been my downfall in terms of the position of the tip. Stilll, a lesson learned.

The pattern is pretty much as described by Hardy, except subbed red goose for the tail veiling, had no claret floss so used wine, and there is no light mottled turkey in the wing as i didnt have any long enough to fit.

Tail is probably too long/high, another consequence of the position of the tip and the gut tie in. I guess if i'd moved it forward i could have used smaller tippets and had a lower set wing as well as the tail.
I actually prepped most of the materials once i had the tip and tag tied, so i deliberately picked a bigger tippet.

Now i know what i'm looking at when i see everything out of whack, it wont happen again.

Also included an image of my nice and tidy tying area...the vise with the fly in it is my old one i use for photographs. The new atlas is the machine of choice now!

Thanks for checking in, and any further comments of critique are most welcome!

Eunan

[wingman]

Not a bad attempt SF, a slightly more adventurous pattern maybe. I'd say your'e too high on the tail and maybe a bit long on it aswell. You full gutted the fly have you seen the price of that stuff, only if I was goona fish it would I full-gut a fly but I can see that it's caused the body to look a bit bulky and more streamlined would have been more in keeping. Your'e a bit lumpy on the floss tag also but thats me being picky. You can clobber me when I post my Durham Ranger which I still havn't started yet due to waiting on materials.

[s fontinalis]

Apparently, full gutted flies are historically more accurate that just gutting the eye. I believe PT (or Kelson or some of them other blokes) describes it in their book, most likely PT, i know i read it somewhere. But you're right, full gutting is a ***** unless you have the right thickness of gut.
I've two different thicknesses i twist myself, that post WWII stuff (on cards of 20 yds i believe). looks like i'll be using the smaller thickness in future if i decide on the full gut again.

Must be old age, but when i burnished that tag it was nice and flat, at least to the naked eye, however, the Macro image is a wonderful leveler!

As for the tail, i just today got some great advice from a pro on another forum in terms of a visual re height and length, so with a bit of luck, implementation of that will help my nightmare of high and mighty tails.

looking forward to the DR!

Eunan