Hackle Shortening SBS (Tutorial)

[letumgo]

Bill - As I study these photos closely, image six catches my eye. If you look closely at the section of feather to the left of the wraps, it looks like you'd be left with a perfect little extended body, once the hackle steam is trimmed off. I would be tempted to use this technique to create extended bodies and maybe even wrap the base end to form a thorax. Thanks for the inspiration.

[DOUGSDEN]

My stars Bill!
I think you should do this professionally! The whole sequence is so clear (except the vice focus and we understand that!) and so easy to follow! Our only question is.....when are you going to do another one of these? Outstanding work Bill!
Pal Doug

[tie2fish]

Bill - As I study these photos closely, image six catches my eye. If you look closely at the section of feather to the left of the wraps, it looks like you'd be left with a perfect little extended body, once the hackle steam is trimmed off. I would be tempted to use this technique to create extended bodies and maybe even wrap the base end to form a thorax. Thanks for the inspiration.

It works better with the hackle stem pointed the other way ... (Apologies for the genre)

[wayneb]

Thanks for the SBS Bill!

Was playing around this evening trying to duplicate your technique, hardest part for me is distributing the barbs around the hook.

I must admit, it definetly renders a poor grade(stem wise) partridge very useable!

Thanks again for sharing;

Wayneb

[redietz]

Bill -

Thanks for taking the time for that sequence. It's better shortening technique than the one I sometimes use.

[Izaak]

Any suggestions on how to tie in the feather? On top, side, bottom....any preference and/or better results with one or the other? Upon trying this techniques I realized that if I tie in the barbs too close to the hook eye I get poor results. They actually get tied on the downward bend of the eye and end up getting pulled under the shank and spoiling the nice, round spread of barbs. Also, when bringing the thread forward through the hackle, are you pulling the barbs back over the hook shank while doing so, or are the barbs just standing up?

Tom

[cassady]

Nicely done, and thanks. I was wondering about this, and couldn't quite grok the text version.

[hankaye]

tie2fish, Howdy;

Bill! Excellent SBS! Seen and heard of this before but none nearly as well
done as your's. Thanks for the time, effort and energy to pull this all
together.

hank

[tie2fish]

Tom et al ~ I'm pretty sure that in the earlier posts I mentioned "practice" and "patience". My first attempts at this process were fairly laughable, but it does get better. I do tie the hackle bunch in on top of the hook shank, but mainly because this provides better access to the stem when it comes time to shorten the barb length. The key for me is to try to get the barbs spread around the hook before I tighten the initial loose wraps too much. Now that I think about it, I often let the bobbin hang, hold the hackle stem in place with my left hand and gently roll (twist) the barbs around with my right. I also turn my vise (pedestal base) to look at the fly head-on to see just where things are during this process.

I have not tried consciously folding the barbs back over the hook while I'm bringing the thread forward, but I can see how this might be a help if you are having a barb displacement problem during the process. I pretty much just "wiggle" it through on the bottom side, but it is possible that I do hold them back without thinking about it. Depending on how much room there is between the eye and the hackle, I frequently hold the hackle back out of the way with my left hand while I'm making that one firm thread wrap in front. It is also often necessary for me to stroke the barbs back out of the way to provide clearance for doing the whip finish (I use a Matarelli tool).

To all others who have commented, I thank you for your enthusiastic response.

[tie2fish]

As an amendment to the above post, I tied a couple more flies this morning using this hackle shortening procedure and discovered that I indeed do hold the hackle barbs back with my left hand while I am bringing the thread forward to the front. My admittedly poor excuse for not discussing this during the SBS is that I needed one hand free to depress the camera shutter button and therefore did not have photo of this happening .