FLYMPH FORUM

Hook: Partridge L2A #14
Thread: green Pearsall's gossamer
Body: Thread
Hackle: from under a woodcock's wing

Elegant simplicity! Skillfully tyed.

The way I slap the water when casting makes it necessary that I heavily hackle my dressings.

joaniebo, Howdy;

Very nicely tied flies, nice thick hackles too!
Did you just build up your thread for the thorax
or use another thread to conserve your silk?

hank

Your hackle "thickness" is more like that of the Pritt era than is Olber's.

I'm so old that maybe "I saw" the originals being tied!

Actually, I've been hackling my dressings with more than the current preference of some people to do sparsely hackled dressings. I was very pleased to see in Rob Smith's North Country Spiders book pics of flies dressed by the "Old Masters" where the hackling was both heavier and longer than what is now often shown as "sparsely hackled."

In addition, if I did the sparse hackles, after slapping the water in my casting, I'd have little left than a thread or dubbed body.

Hank - I just used the Pearsall green silk for the built up area behind the hackles. I do that with many of my thread=bodied dressings.

If you go back a few years on this forum the sparseness in hackling shown by olber was the norm and very appreciated. The change has slowly crept upon us when we have dug deeper into historical references. Sparseness was of little value, probably, to fishermen before eyed hooks arrived on the scene. I like the fuller hackling but I have also had a preference for sparseness. It is difficult to objectively compare effectiveness between the two. You can compare but you will not get a scientific result.

Nice tying all over.

dd

I play with both. Why limit? However I would still see this is a little too sparse. I think we need to consider other facets of the fly design, conditions of the water and apply all purposefully.
I tend to go sparser on the hackle when I'm tying the spider as a spinner. But to achieve a good presentation as a spinner there are other things to consider. A spinner pattern to me would have a very light wire hook, straight eye, a little dubbing (just enough to provide surface area to keep the fly in the surface tension of the water, sparse hackle.

The pendulum will keep swinging. There is a purpose to be found for each position.