Daft bibio question

[North Country Angler]

Sorry for the daft question, but......

After palmering your bibio with cock, would you then use hen for the head hackle.....or more cock? I've seen it done both ways - any pros and cons to either?

A friend was telling me the other day that the original WOI version of the same fly uses not red/orange for the 'hot spot', but claret! I'm tying a few up for him and he has specifically asked for them to be tied with claret - interesting!

Cheers,
Matt

[TAFFTASTIC]

Yes agree claret for the hotspot,and personally cock hackle for the front also

[Chris Reeves]

I tie bibios both ways, softer head hackle for the quieter days and stiff for a top dropper fly for a windy day. I also tie them half and half black and red or black and claret. Its easier to dub twice than three times.
I haven't noticed any difference in this method against the original but then I'm usually fishing it for rainbows.

Cheers

[saracen]

Originally Posted by North Country Angler

Sorry for the daft question, but......

After palmering your bibio with cock, would you then use hen for the head hackle.....or more cock? I've seen it done both ways - any pros and cons to either?

A friend was telling me the other day that the original WOI version of the same fly uses not red/orange for the 'hot spot', but claret! I'm tying a few up for him and he has specifically asked for them to be tied with claret - interesting!

Cheers,
Matt

Hi Matt,

I have them tied with both red/orange and hen/ cock.I think the colour is just preference, but the hackle I would use to suit the weather.If it's a big rolling wave and I want something to make a distrubance, then I would use the cock.If it's a light ripple and I want a nymphy pulsing movement to the fly
I would use the hen.
Other good variations are, a english partridge head hackle and one of my favourites a fluro green tail, which is excellent for early season.
I have heard of the claret centred one from the guys at corrib, I think they give it a different name,but never tried one.

Tightlines,
Saracen

Tightlines,
Saracen

[sonnaghan]

Also fluo yellow for the centre. Stan Headley mentions the claret bit in his book. And why not shove on a few pairs of pheasant legs too or only have a hen hackle at front with a few pair of legs! So many variations--if you tied them all there would be no fishing!

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by North Country Angler

A friend was telling me the other day that the original WOI version of the same fly uses not red/orange for the 'hot spot', but claret!

Not sure about that Matt... the original does indeed hail from the west. Tied and named, as you know after Bibio Pomonae - Heather fly. Why would the original have a claret hotspot? Besides, claret is hardly a 'hotspot' anyway...why bother putting a spot of claret between two sections of black?

[teuchter]

The original Bibio devised by Major Charles Roberts about sixty years ago didn't have a claret centre body.........it was black, red, black.
The claret, orange, claret version was a regional variation I listed in FF&FT last month, that was given to me about twenty years ago. This variant with a partridge head hackle was very popular in the west of Ireland.
As Sam said, the choice of hackle is a personal thing........dependent on conditions etc and where you want to fish it on the cast.

George Barron

[IanG]

Originally Posted by Chris Reeves

I tie bibios both ways, softer head hackle for the quieter days and stiff for a top dropper fly for a windy day. I also tie them half and half black and red or black and claret. Its easier to dub twice than three times.
I haven't noticed any difference in this method against the original but then I'm usually fishing it for rainbows.

Cheers

I was shown the black then red twice only dubbed method by good old Eric Sayers (now no longer with us) and it works well. The rear body black, then the red section and the final application of body hackle, then head hackle if you use one and then a small black thread head give you a good proportion of black-red-black. Otherwise it is easy to get the body sections a little compressed and as such the red middle bit can get a bit lost.

Cheers


Ian

[North Country Angler]

Originally Posted by IanG

I was shown the black then red twice only dubbed method by good old Eric Sayers (now no longer with us) and it works well. The rear body black, then the red section and the final application of body hackle, then head hackle if you use one and then a small black thread head give you a good proportion of black-red-black. Otherwise it is easy to get the body sections a little compressed and as such the red middle bit can get a bit lost.

Cheers


Ian

Cheers Ian. Funny you should mention Eric, I was thinking about him this afternoon when I was knocking a few spiders together. A real gent and I miss him......and his 10% 'loyalty' discounts of course!

M

[IanG]

Originally Posted by North Country Angler

Cheers Ian. Funny you should mention Eric, I was thinking about him this afternoon when I was knocking a few spiders together. A real gent and I miss him......and his 10% 'loyalty' discounts of course!

M

Heh heh - I reckon I never paid more than a fiver in there whenever Eric was in WHATEVER I bought..... You'd always get an illustrated demo of a killer fly and barely intelligable verbal description of how to tie it........ went something like this:

ES - (in hushed tones, with accompanying conspiratorial look over shoulder) - "Aye........ Aye.......... sithi......... B160............(garbled) ....... 2 milli bead..........(unintelligable)..... bleached starling............... ice dub............. brown kev-ler........."

He was a one off.