If I have all the materials and tools in front of me (which is rarely the case!) I can tie one of these simple spider patterns, like this Partridge and Yellow, in about 1 - 1 1/2 minutes or so. Instead of attaching my thread to the hook, I use a superb technique that Hans came up with, tying in the feather directly onto the hook shank without making any thread wraps beforehand. It takes a little practice but the result is, if you are careful and take your time, a nice, non-lumpy head/thorax area that looks so much nicer than wrapping the hackle onto existing thread wraps. I recommend watching some of Hans' videos where he is tying spiders to see how he does this.letumgo wrote:Just curious, how quickly do do tye these? Do you prepare your materials ahead of time? Any tips you can offer?
(I didn't do so well with the fly in the closeup photo. In order to get the hackle tied in securely and then stop to take the twist out of the thread, I took a wrap or two more than I wanted to and it left the area a little bumpy after coming back over the area in the opposite direction to complete the fly. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!)
Anyway, then it is simply a matter of wrapping touching turns of thread to the point where I want the body to end, then reverse wrapping back to the point where I will tie off the hackle. Let the bobbin holder hang, grab hackle pliers and attach to feather tip, and wrap a turn or 2 of hackle towards the point where the thread is waiting. Cross over the hackle stem with the thread and cut through the hackle sharply, I do it in about 1 -1 1/2 turns, until the thread is right behind the eye. Take a turn or two of thread, pulling back any stray hackle fibers if needed, and then whip finish. Snip off thread, and then snap, or snip off the hackle tip and you are done!
If I sit down to tie a dozen of these, which I don't often do, I might prepare the feathers ahead of time, but in reality this rarely happens. I am not that organized and often have to go searching for my scissors or hackle pliers midstream! But once I have completed the first fly I am pretty well set to go on to the next fly.
Tips: good lighting, and wear your reading glasses! and tie in the hackle with the technique described above. I select hackle feathers that have barbs about the length of the hook shank, length of the entire hook at most. And my preference is to make heads very small. There are usually only about 5-6 wraps of thread behind the eye, including the 3-turn whip finish. When wrapping the hackle make sure your first wrap is onto the horizontal shank and not the downturned part of eye, so make sure when you tie in the hackle feather that there is room for this first wrap of hackle. And I leave about a millimeter or so of exposed hackle stem to facilitate an easy first wrap. This is to help ensure that the first hackle barbs will be perpendicular to the hook shank and not leaning forward over the eye.
I think that covers it!
Tom
