A little play at the vice this morning

[stevekale]

Just messing around trying to compile a few techniques together.

I've been dabbling with J:Son & Co Realistic Wing Material and burners. I also love the way Steve Thornton does his detached mayfly bodies (eg the Detached Body CAM Emerger) especially the care taken around the head and eye area. Neat little tricks. But I don't really like the way he does his legs with a partridge feather. There's no support for the fly and it more than likely topples over. (Although it likely doesn't matter a damn given more than adequate flotation from the foam.) The way Claes does his legs is effective visually but again he's not concerned with how the fly lands on the water - "drowned" on its side is ok. I also looked at how Oliver Edwards does his hackle on his mohican but there again the hackle gets mashed around by the foam and the forward facing hackle fibres get caught doing the head and end up having to be cut off. Messy.

It then occurred to me on a sleepless night that the hackle technique deployed to such great effect by Roy Christie could be an interesting solution but in reverse - a reverse-reverse para if you like. I wanted a nice balanced but scruffy profile that splayed on a horizontal plane and could be done last in the tying process so that fibres didn't get caught finishing the body. So instead of using Roy's method on top of the shank I did it last from the bottom of the shank. The fly sits perfectly with a great profile from underneath. Sorted.

The below is a first attempt. Let me know what you think!

Of course you can deploy this method using Claes' wings, Steve's mohican synthetic wing, Oliver's deer hair mohican wing or whatever else you choose.

[g bigtrout]

Nice piece of work steve....but i guess the true test is when you take it for a swim to see how it fares.

[AndrewMWalker]

That's a fantastic fly, your tying goes from strength to strength!!

Andy

[Mrtrout]

First class Steve, excellent body segmentation.
S.

[shuggie]

Excellent tying Steve.


Derek

[stevekale]

Cheers guys. Can't wait to give it a swim. I have a few of my earlier attempts coloured for some New Zealand mayflies in a box to head down-under at the end of the week. I won't have time to do some with this hackling technique but I will work towards our own Mayfly season for that!

[stevekale]

FYI here's a link to how to do the hackle work. I just prepare everything on the UNDERSIDE of the Kamasan B100 first, rotate the vice back to normal and then do all the wings and body. When ready to do the hackle, rotate the vice and away you go as per below. I prep the tippet for the hackle so that it runs straight out the front of the fly (between the eyes). When done you'll end up with a disk-like splay of hackle legs that nicely seat the fly upright in the water without crowding the gape.

UKFlyDressing - Roy's Reverse Para

[sculpin_crusader]

Awesome Steve, thanks for the link. I will give that a go on a OE mohican, I agree with you in the the hackles do get messy at the front and you also have to persuade the hackle fibres to sit parallel as they have a tendency to point down. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[maharg]

Is there a post in there somewhere?
I assume you have split the foam at the head and it wraps both sides of the wings?
Very nice tying

[stevekale]

Originally Posted by sculpin_crusader

Awesome Steve, thanks for the link. I will give that a go on a OE mohican, I agree with you in the the hackles do get messy at the front and you also have to persuade the hackle fibres to sit parallel as they have a tendency to point down. Thanks for sharing this with us.

I knew you'd be liking that one. Just skip the step in the link above that refers to sweeping the hackle back into its "normal position". Leave it squished flat.