Tutorial - Tying a Grouse and Orange Soft Hackle
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:34 pm
This one's for you Hank. 
Preparation of materials:
MATERIALS:
Hook - Mustad R50U-94842 Size 12 (TUE dry fly hook)
Thread - Pearsall's Gossamer Silk (Hot Orange/No. 19)
Hackle - North American Grouse
Body - Pearsall's Marabou Silk (Hot Orange/No. 19) - split down to three individual strands and wound over the top of the tying thread
Note that the Gossamer silk is much finer diameter than the Marabou silk. The Gossamer is normally used as a tying tread, while the Marabou is split apart and wrapped by hand. The Gossamer silk is the one in the bobbin, while the Marabou silk is the thicker material on the spool.
Mount the hook in the vice and wax a few inches of the Gossamer tying silk to make it tacky. Make five (5) secure wraps and stop.
Trim off the tag end (the piece hanging down to the left).
Cut off a piece of the Marabou silk roughly 4-1/2" long.
Untwist the strand and then fold in half. The strand should split in two once it is untwisted. Now take half of the strand and repeat the process. Each half will now split into multiple finer strands. Your goal is to separate the silk into finer strands, which will wrap more smoothly than the single (course) strand as it comes off the spool.
Take three of the fine strands and secure them to the hook.
Wrap the tying thread (Gossamer silk) in closely touching turns to the back of the hook.
Wind the tying thread forward to the eye of the hook, leaving about four or five wrap gap before the eye (roughly 1/16").
Wrap the Marabou silk strands forward over the body in touching turns. The separated strands should form a smooth body as they are wrapped forward.
Tye off with one or two wraps of the Gossamer silk tying thread.
Prepare a grouse hackle by stripping off the fluff along the sides of the feather and stroking the hackle fibers outwards to the side.
FEATHER BEFORE PREPARING:
Once the feather is prepared, clip off the tip of the feather leaving a small section to tye in byt the tip.
FEATHER AFTER PREPARATION:
Tye the feather with the good side facing towards you. You should only need three or four secure wraps to hold the feather in place. Ideally, the tying silk will now be right behind the eye of the hook.
While grasping the stem of the feather, gently pinch the fibers and stroke them back towards the back to the hook (folding the hackle). Wrap the hackle forward towards the eye of the hook. Carefully stroke the fibers backwards with each wrap. One and a half to two turns of hackle should be plenty.
Secure with the tying thread and clip off the excess steam. Whip finish with four or five turns and clip off the tying thread. Add a drop of head cement and your done.
Preparation of materials:
MATERIALS:
Hook - Mustad R50U-94842 Size 12 (TUE dry fly hook)
Thread - Pearsall's Gossamer Silk (Hot Orange/No. 19)
Hackle - North American Grouse
Body - Pearsall's Marabou Silk (Hot Orange/No. 19) - split down to three individual strands and wound over the top of the tying thread
Note that the Gossamer silk is much finer diameter than the Marabou silk. The Gossamer is normally used as a tying tread, while the Marabou is split apart and wrapped by hand. The Gossamer silk is the one in the bobbin, while the Marabou silk is the thicker material on the spool.
Mount the hook in the vice and wax a few inches of the Gossamer tying silk to make it tacky. Make five (5) secure wraps and stop.
Trim off the tag end (the piece hanging down to the left).
Cut off a piece of the Marabou silk roughly 4-1/2" long.
Untwist the strand and then fold in half. The strand should split in two once it is untwisted. Now take half of the strand and repeat the process. Each half will now split into multiple finer strands. Your goal is to separate the silk into finer strands, which will wrap more smoothly than the single (course) strand as it comes off the spool.
Take three of the fine strands and secure them to the hook.
Wrap the tying thread (Gossamer silk) in closely touching turns to the back of the hook.
Wind the tying thread forward to the eye of the hook, leaving about four or five wrap gap before the eye (roughly 1/16").
Wrap the Marabou silk strands forward over the body in touching turns. The separated strands should form a smooth body as they are wrapped forward.
Tye off with one or two wraps of the Gossamer silk tying thread.
Prepare a grouse hackle by stripping off the fluff along the sides of the feather and stroking the hackle fibers outwards to the side.
FEATHER BEFORE PREPARING:
Once the feather is prepared, clip off the tip of the feather leaving a small section to tye in byt the tip.
FEATHER AFTER PREPARATION:
Tye the feather with the good side facing towards you. You should only need three or four secure wraps to hold the feather in place. Ideally, the tying silk will now be right behind the eye of the hook.
While grasping the stem of the feather, gently pinch the fibers and stroke them back towards the back to the hook (folding the hackle). Wrap the hackle forward towards the eye of the hook. Carefully stroke the fibers backwards with each wrap. One and a half to two turns of hackle should be plenty.
Secure with the tying thread and clip off the excess steam. Whip finish with four or five turns and clip off the tying thread. Add a drop of head cement and your done.
Wrapping the body with floss rather than Pearsall's thread also answers a quandary I had this weekend: what's the upper limit in terms of fly size when you're using a bare silk body? It seems the floss body is robust enough to work on even the biggest "trout-sized" fly.