Quigley’s Tying Tips
When fishing, the best weapon we have is confidence in our fly selection, and we often have the most confidence in flies we tie ourselves. These tips can help you refine your tying skills resulting in more angling success.
Demonstrating and Teaching
Whether you are a beginner or an expert tier, teaching someone else how to tie flies is the best way to become a better tier yourself. Take the time to demonstrate fly tying to someone else. This helps you break any fly pattern into its basic elements, and as you explain the tying process, you find ways to refine and improve it.
Many relevant observations and questions arise from observers and students, and in many cases, your students may end up teaching you something. No matter how much preparation and anticipation I put into my tying classes, my students often manage to reverse the teaching process.
Parachute Hackle
One of the most frequent questions I hear is: “How do I tie off parachute hackle?”
Strip off the webbing and a few extra barbs on the inside of the hackle stem. Tie the prepared hackle across the top of the hook in front of the wing post, shiny side up, and concave (dull) side underneath. This positions the hackle stem to intersect the base of the wing post so that on the first wrap, the barbs are perfectly aligned at 90 degrees to the post.
Make the first wrap near the base of the post, and make three or four wraps for lightly dressed flies to use on spring creeks and stillwaters. Make twice as many wraps for fishing in swift water and riffles. Make sure that each wrap falls below the preceding one.
After the final wrap, position the hackle tip over the far side of the hook shank, just behind the hook eye, with hackle pliers still attached. Retract the thread into the bobbin until the bobbin tube actually touches the eye of the hook, then wrap over the hook shank and hackle tip, using the bobbin tube to control what you “catch” with the thread and to prevent extra hackle fibers from becoming trapped.
Use the bobbin tube to slide the thread underneath the parachute hackle. The bobbin will push the barbs slightly up as it passes underneath, allowing the hackle to regain its natural position and not get tied into the hook shank or eye. Half-hitch the thread with a small hitch tool.
Apply a small amount of cement to the top of the hackle on the wing, and to the head of the fly. [For an alternative parachute hackle method, see Charlie Craven’s “Picture-Perfect Parachutes” in the July 2008 issue. The Editor.]
Super Glue
Super Glue (cyanoacrylate glue, Krazy Glue, Zap-a-Gap) is great stuff, but it’s also runny and can be tricky to work with.
Don’t use the Super Glue bottle to dispense glue directly onto your fly. Instead, apply the glue to a thin sewing needle or bodkin, and then dab the needle to the fly. This way you won’t ruin a fly you’ve nearly completed.
Many fly shops sell Zap-A-Gap, which has a precision applicator tube. It is possible to go directly from the bottle with this product.
If you want an indestructible biot, pheasant tail, turkey quill, or other quill-type body, apply an even layer of Super Glue to the underbody, wrap the body material, rib the body with wire, and apply a second coat of Super Glue over the body and let it dry before finishing the fly.
I usually tie the body, take it out of the vise, and put it into a block of foam or a fly holder and add the second coat of Super Glue there, so I can start another fly in the vise. I tie a dozen bodies, then go back and finish the flies when the glue is dry.
For indestructible nymph wingcases, apply a drop or two of Super Glue, allow it to dry, and then add a coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails. For dumbbell eyes, add a drop of Super Glue before you figure-eight wrap your thread, and another after you finish your wraps. After the glue dries, add a coat of Hard As Nails.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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