Tying a Better Compara-dun
Jimmy’s Compara-dun
Though the list of necessary Compara-dun ingredients is brief, actually tying a good one isn’t simple. Many tiers struggle with the fly’s deer-hair wing. Using too much hair, tied in a single clump with the tips extending toward the hook eye, creates a bulky fly, with a disproportionate abdomen, and a wing that tilts forward unnaturally.
Jimmy altered the Compara-dun to improve the pattern’s wing. He divided the Microfibett tail with a dubbing ball, the way most tiers do. He formed a neat, clean dubbed body, which is also pretty standard. But Jimmy tied the wing material in backward, with thedeer-hair butts extending toward the hook eye instead of the bend.
By inverting the direction the wing is tied onto the hook shank, Jimmy made two major improvements: First, if the wing begins to lean after the fly has been roughly handled with hemostats, or chewed by a trout, it slants back toward the fly’s abdomen, just like a real mayfly wing.
Second, many tiers create too much bulk in the Compara-dun abdomen when they dub over the deer-hair butts. Jimmy’s method positions the wing butts under the thorax, where a little extra bulk helps build the body’s taper.
Jimmy’s next advancement involved attaching the wing to the hook. Most Compara-dun wings are tied down in one spot with several turns of thread. The wing is then pulled upright and a dubbing dam is formed in front of it to keep it erect.
This technique creates several problems: If you use too much hair, tightly capturing all the fibers under your thread is difficult and when the wing is finished, some hair falls out. Tiers try to rectify this by using less hair, but then the flies are too sparse—they don’t float well, and they’re less visible.
It’s also difficult to firmly secure the wing by tying it down in one place. Compara-dun wings tied this way are often loose and spin around the hook shank when the thread is pulled tight to flare the wing.
Jimmy tied his wings down in four stages. He began by securing the entire bundle of deer hair to the hook in one clump. Next, he grasped a third of the hair, pulling it upright and toward the hook eye, and wrapped against it and the rest of the clump. He did the same with the next third of hair, and then again with the final third. This technique creates a full wing using the maximum amount of deer hair—a wing that won’t fall out or slip around the hook shank. Jimmy’s methods make all Compara-duns, Sparkle Duns, and Compara-chutes into better, more durable, flies.
Jimmy Charron died from heart failure in late winter 2002. His funeral was held on a cold, blustery day along the West Branch of the Delaware, and it was heavily attended by the local fly-fishing community. For those lucky enough to watch Jimmy tie a fly, or who spent time with him on the water, or sat around a campfire with him when the fishing day was done, he will never be forgotten. I remember Jimmy every time I tie a Compara-dun, Sparkle Dun, or Compara-chute, and every time a trout rises to take it.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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