Woodcock and Orange

[Roadkill]

Hook-Wholesale Fly Company Model 21 #12
Thread- Orange Kimono Silk for the body and Yellow for the rib (coated with Hard as Nails)
Hackle & Tail-Woodcock

RIMG7294 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

[letumgo]

Now that is a “hunter” pattern! Great stuff Bill!

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Lovely wee fly, Bill. I've never coated the silk with head cement before. Interesting look. I'll have to try it. Love the woodcock. That and English Red Grouse are two of my favorite hackles.

[DUBBN]

Pretty color combo. Orange is not just for October anymore.

[Roadkill]

I am also tying this as a shell back pattern to test along with the SH tied in the round.

RIMG7298 by William Lovelace, on Flickr

I am simply adding the tail after the orange body and tying the barbs down on the back with the yellow rib.

[RickA]

So what did you use for the shell back?
Does it matter if you are putting a finish on the body?
I like the segmentation it creates with the ribbing and looks dead on for a drowned spinner
I'm definitely gonna add that to my spinner box.
Thank you.

[Roadkill]

So what did you use for the shell back?

Rick,

Instead of tying the tail fibers in and wrapping the orange body silk thread forward over them, I left the yellow silk at the hook bend & finished the orange body forward. Next, I added the tail fibers with 2 wraps of the yellow ribbing at the back of the body, laid the rest of the tail fibers down on top of the body and secured them with the rib. Then I tied off the rib and shellback with the orange silk.

Next, I coated the finished body with my head cement for durability before adding the hackle.

[RickA]

Thanks Bill
I just noticed you mentioned that under the photo.
Guess I was too busy gawking at the fly and didn't get that far

[Mike62]

You had me at Woodcock...

I like the idea of coating the silk with SHHAN; I've never tried that, I will now.

[paparex]

I thought that one of the objectives to using silk was the opaqueness of the material when wet. When I've tried to put hard as nails, crazy glue or epoxy on the body of the fly it the color was fixed, darker than I had planned and not worth the expense of the silk. Tying thread is just as good as silk if the expected properties are not expressed. Is what I said accurate?

Can someone set me right?

Rex

P.S. The fly is beautiful!