Lesson - 01

Grey Hackle

EQUIPMENT. For the tying of flies you should have a good vise, a pair of pointed scissors and a pair of hackle pliers. These three tools are very necessary for your fly tying. Also, be sure that they are the best you can possibly buy.

The scissors should be sharp pointed. In using pointed scissors it is possible to place the point of the scissors in a very small area and to cut small portions from any place on the fly. If you do not have sharp pointed scissors, it will be difficult to cut small portions. Cutting more than is necessary sometimes ruins the fly you are tying.

I would recommend a round nosed fly tying vise rather than any other type, because of the advantage in hiding the point of the hook and the lower portion of the bend of the hook. Only the top of the bend and the shank of the hook need to be, or should be, exposed when you are tying a fly.

PLACING THE HOOK IN THE VISE. First, hold the hook on a parallel with the top of the table, with the shank of the hook in a horizontal position. Then, insert it into the open jaws of the vise, so the barb and the lower portion of the bend of the hook are covered by the jaws of the vise. It is much simpler to tie a fly when the shank is exactly horizontal to the top of the table and the barb is fully covered; applying the materials is made much easier when this is done.

Next, clamp the hook into the jaws as tightly as possible. Clamping the hook securely into the jaws of the vise gives a much better chance of wrapping the materials without catching, tearing or fraying them, which happens so frequently if the hook is not securely clamped down in the proper position. When the fly is in the finishing stages, you may, at times, find that the barb of the hook has broken. Nine chances out of ten this isn't the fault of the hook, or of the temper of the steel, or of any number of other things that you might think has gone wrong. Rather it is the fault of the individual tying the fly who has failed to clamp down tightly on me hook with the jaws of the vise, thus allowing a certain amount of slippage, movement or change in position of the hook. The slice or barb is the weakest portion of the hook. Protect against this weakness in the hook by clamping it tightly into the jaws of the vise when you are tying flies.

TYING SILK. You are now ready to start the tying of base silk, or tying silk as it is commonly called. Cut off about 2 feet of silk from your spool of black tying silk. On this fly use 00, or 2/0 as it is called, thread.

WAXING THE TYING SILK. After cutting the length of silk from the spool, wax the thread with fly tying wax. There are many types of fly tying wax on the market. Some of them are good; others are not. I prefer a wax, beige in color, of good consistency, which gives a tacky feeling to the silk thread. This type of wax is desirable for all tying purposes and, because it provides a resistant surface, is particularly good for dubbin' or spinning fur on the thread.

Draw the silk thread that you have cut off through the wax by holding the thread on the wax with your thumb and pulling the silk away from you. If you do not completely wax all of the thread in this way, hold the other end of the silk on the wax with your thumb and pull the thread through the wax in the other direction. Waxing the silk this way will give you a good base for all of the materials that will go on the hook, regardless of how few or how many. A great many tyers do not use any wax at all. This is a poor practice because it gives the materials a chance to slip. When you are just starting you will find that waxing the tying silk helps you to make better flies.

WRAPPING ON THE TYING SILK. After you have waxed the tying silk, lay the silk thread along the top of the hook, with one end of the tying silk just in front of the bend of the hook and the rest of the two feet on top of the shank of the hook and hanging over in front of the hook, that is, in front of the eye of the hook. Hold the tying silk on top of the shank of the hook with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Then with your right hand wrap the free end of the tying silk around the hook, next to the eye, crossing over the silk which lies on the top of the hook. Now, start wrapping toward the bend of the hook, continuing to wrap over the portion of the silk that you are holding on top of the hook. You will find that wrapping the silk around the shank of the hook, and over the end of the silk which you are holding on top of the hook, soon attaches the silk firmly to the hook. And after 3 or 4 wraps over them you will find that the held end of the silk is quite firmly bound to the shank of the hook. Then spiral the free end of the silk around the shank of the hook, taking 6 or 8 turns to the bend of the hook.

This is the first step in the actual tying of a fly, and I suggest that you check each motion carefully. Also, study the illustration of this step.

THE HALF-HITCH. The next step is to make a half-hitch around the shank of the hook with the tying silk. In making a half-hitch with the tying silk a great many tyers "throw" a hitch on their hook. A half-hitch is necessary, but in "throwing" a half-hitch there is very little control and frequently the hitch has to be pushed into the proper position on the hook, either with the fingernail or a dubbin' needle. This is not necessary. With a little practice on the method that I am about to explain you will find the silk can be placed in the correct spot with very little effort. Here is the method of making the half-hitch which I prefer:

Hold the tying silk between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, grasping it about six inches from the hook. Pull the thread straight toward you. Then, place two fingers of your left hand, the forefinger and middle finger, on top of the tying silk, holding the two fingers about an inch apart. Now, with your right hand make a complete circle with the free end of the tying silk around the two fingers of your left hand and also around the shank of the hook. Upon completing this circle with the tying silk, grasp the tying silk between the forefinger and middle finger of your left hand. Let go of the tying silk with your right hand; and place the forefinger of your right hand on the shank of the hook at the point where the tying silk has crossed over it, holding the tying silk against the hook at this point. Now, with the two fingers of your left hand (which are holding the tying silk) pull the free end of the length of tying silk through the loop and pull it toward you until the silk is looped tightly around the shank of the hook. You will find that when the tying silk tightens on the shank of the hook the half-hitch is made.

This should give you a good half-hitch, one of the knots which is very important in tying flies. If you find that it did not work the first time, go over the instructions again and study the illustration. You will find that there is one phase of the procedure which you have failed to see or to follow. If you have someone with you, have him read the steps while you do as he says. Practice the half-hitch until you have mastered it. You will use it hundreds of times. Practice with just the bare hook, and continue until you are certain that you have it right.
 
One more point, before we go to the next step. Remember always to bring the tying silk, or the wraps of the tying silk, to the exact bend of the hook. This is absolutely necessary because, if you fail to do this, you will find the body of the fly will not be as long as it should be. Unless the tying silk is brought to the exact bend of the hook you will bunch the body of the fly and, then, after the hackle has been wrapped on the hackle overbalances the rest of the fly.
 
TYING ON THE TAIL. When you have learned how to place the hook in the vise properly, know how to start the wrapping of the tying silk on the shank of the hook, and have mastered the half-hitch so that you can make it easily, you are ready to tie the tail of the fly on the hook. Take your fly tying very slowly. There is so much to learn. You will find the use of your own flies opens new fishing fun for you. Also, you will soon be trying to imitate some of the insects which you see fish feeding on. The patterns you tie early in the year will not be the ones to use for the whole season. As the season advances you have to watch what is hatching on the streams or the lakes, wherever you may be, see what the fish are feeding on and try to tie a fly which imitates the bug the fish are taking.

To start with one of the simplest flies, we will tie the Grey Hackle, yellow body. I have found that in starting a person in the art of tying flies the very simple patterns should come first. Then we can add new steps, progressing along into the more difficult patterns, and before the student realizes it the advanced patterns are being taken in stride.

The tying silk is at the bend of the hook, the half-hitch has been placed on the hook. You are now ready to place the tail on this fly. Select a dyed red hackle feather from your packet. Pick it out; look at it closely. You will find that along the base of the hackle feather there is a fuzz. The fuzz is of no use as far as the tying of the average fly is concerned. Take this fuzz and webby portion off. Hold the feather between thumb and forefinger of your right hand; then, with the thumb and forefinger of your left hand pull all of the fuzz and webby portion off. In doing this you will strip off about one-third or one-half of the lower portion of the feather. If you place this fuzz on the tail, you would lose some of the action of the fly; and, actually, it is not the correct material for this particular fly pattern.

After removing the fuzz from the bottom portion of the hackle feather take 6 or 8 fibres of hackle from the feather, pulling the fibres with a downward movement of the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, disengaging the fibres from the quill of the feather. Be sure that the tips of the fibres are even as you grasp the group of disengaged fibres between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand. Now, place the fibres on top of the hook with the tips of the fibres extending over the bend of the hook. The fibres should extend beyond the bend of the hook a distance equal to two-thirds the length of the shank of the hook, no more and no less. To make this clearer: Note the length of the hook, from eye to the beginning of the bend; then look at the fibres you are holding in your fingers and place them at the bend of the hook so that they extend beyond the bend of the hook not more than two-thirds the length of the shank of the hook.

The tips of the fibres are now extending out over the bend of the hook. Hold them in this position on top of the hook and grasp, between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand, both the fibres and the shank of the hook, so that the fibres are held firmly in place on the top of the hook, with the tips of your fingers extending below the shank of the hook. Now take the tying silk in your right hand and bring it up on the inside of the thumb of your left hand, between the ball of your thumb and the shank of the hook. Bring it straight up, without letting the fibres slip, and draw it tight. Now, bring the tying silk down on the far side of the hook, between the hook and the ball of your forefinger, and draw it down until it is tight. Repeat this process, drawing the tying silk up between the ball of the thumb and the near side of the hook and drawing it down between the ball of the forefinger and the far side of the hook. Do this 2 or 3 more times, so that the tail material is bound to the hook with 3 or 4 complete turns of the tying silk. Complete this step with a half-hitch.

Always remember, when fastening materials to the hook with tying silk, to tie them with an up and down movement: up on the near side of the hook, back over the top of the hook, and down on the far side of the hook; on the inside of your thumb when bringing the tying silk up and on the inside of your forefinger when bringing it down. Up and down, up and down. The materials can be held in place on top of the hook and will not slip out of place if this wrap is properly executed. Then, after you have made a half-hitch locking the fibres in place on top of the hook, you can go back and make a few more turns toward the bend of the hook to straighten up the fibres if they are not extending out evenly.
Going back to the half-hitch, I always finish each separate step with a half-hitch when tying materials on the hook. Then, when the step is completed I like to tie the materials off with another half-hitch. This takes time, but it makes the materials very rigid; they will not come off when casting the fly. This is the best way of tying flies. Also, it shows that the fly tyer likes a job that is well done.

Again, check the step just completed. See that the tail extends straight out, so that it is a continuation of the shank of the hook.

TYING ON THE BODY. After finishing the tying of the tail, measure off about 6 or 8 inches of yellow floss and, with your scissors, cut it off the spool of floss. Note that there are always two strands which come off together on the standard spools of fly-tying floss. Tie one end of this double strand of floss to the hook at the exact spot where you made the last half-hitch in front of the tail. Take 3 or 4 turns with the tying silk and make a half-hitch. Then, wrap the tying silk 4 or 5 times around the shank of the hook, spiralling it up to a point 3/l6ths of an inch from the eye of the hook. Here take a half-hitch with the tying silk. This places the tying silk at the spot where it will be used the next time, and after making this half-hitch, you can, for the present, forget about the tying silk.

Now, back to the floss, which you have tied on at the bend of the hook. The free end of the floss is extending out over the bend of the hook, to your left. Take the floss between the fingers of your right hand and make a turn or two around the shank of the hook toward the tail, spiralling the floss clockwise (looked at from the eye of the hook), that is, over the top of the shank of the hook, down on the far side, back toward the tyer under the shank and up on the near side. Completely cover the black tying silk at the bend of the hook and then wrap the floss very evenly around the shank of the hook, in slightly overlapping spirals, covering all of the hook and the tying silk up to the spot where the tying silk is now attached to the hook with a half-hitch. When the floss has been wrapped to this point carry the free end of the floss forward over the eye of the hook and, with the left hand, take the free end of the tying silk and wrap it, clockwise, over the yellow floss. Take 3 or 4 turns of the tying silk, and make a half-hitch. This seals the floss so that it will not slip. Now, cut off the remainder of the floss, as this is not needed for this fly.

TYING ON THE HACKLE. The next step is to wrap and attach the "hackle" of the fly. To avoid confusion, the "hackle" is one of the parts of a tied fly. The same word is used for the feather; but in this particular instance it means a part of the fly, made of a hackle feather. As you progress in the tying of flies you will become aware of the differences in hackle feathers. You will find that there is good hackle and poor hackle. You will learn the difference between wet, semi-wet and dry hackle. You will come to appreciate the difference in both the appearance of a fly and its action in the water that result from using different types of hackle on a fly. This being your first fly, it is more essential that you get the feel, or idea, of tying than it is to learn all the details as to the exact type of hackle feather which is customarily used in tying this pattern.

First, select a barred hackle feather. As to the meaning of "barred" in describing hackle, "barred hackle," "plymouth rock hackle," and "grizzly hackle" are all about the same. The word used to describe this type of hackle depends upon who wrote the book and the location, barred, grizzly or plymouth rock hackle means a natural grey hackle feather, having alternate bars of white and black running across the feather, horizontally, with the center of each bar tapering in a flat "V" shape downward toward the base of the feather.
 
In selecting the hackle feather you must take one with hackle fibres of the right length for the fly that is being tied. If you have a hackle gauge, you can use it to measure the length of the fibres and get hackle of the proper length for the fly you are tying. Without a hackle gauge the simplest way to find the right size hackle is as follows : Take the tip of the feather and bend it to the base of the feather, forming a circle. Lay the feather flat on the top of the shank of the hook, with the quill of the feather at the spot where the tying silk is attached to the hook. Look to see how far the hackle fibres extend. If the tips of the fibres extend beyond the bend of the hook, the hackle is too long for this fly. Select another feather, and if it is not right, another one, until you find a feather which has fibres which extend to, but not beyond, the bend of the hook. Remember, bend the feather so the tip meets the butt of the feather, then place it flat on top of the hook to see that the fibres do not extend beyond the bend of the hook. When you have done this and the hackle fibres seem to be the right length you are ready to tie the hackle on the hook.

Before tying the hackle on, however, you must be sure to take all of the fuzz and heavy fibres from the base of the hackle feather. Pull off all of the fuzz and the webby hackle at the base of the quill. Then, take a pair of scissors and cut off the quill that has been stripped of hackle fibres. Next, take 2 or 3 fibres from each side of the quill, tearing them off with a downward motion. This gives you a good base to tie the hackle on the hook. It also prevents any slippage after the hackle has been tied. Tie the lower, stripped end of the hackle feather to the hook with 3 or 4 turns of the tying silk. Tie it tightly; and then make a half-hitch.

Take your hackle pliers and attach them to the tip end of the hackle feather. Wind the hackle feather, clockwise, around the shank of the hook. Always keep the tying silk in front of the hackle. Wrap the hackle over itself, one turn on top of the other. Winding the hackle over itself will not cause it to bunch or mat. The hackle fibres will start to spread out, making the fly more attractive and giving it the shape which produces the right action when it is used. Take 5 turns of the hackle around the hook; no more, no less. Then, with the tying silk, cross over the end of the hackle that is left. To be more explicit here, carry the tip of the hackle feather forward over the eye of the hook at the end of the fifth turn around the hook. Then, with the tying silk cross over the quill of the hackle feather immediately in front of the hackle that has been wrapped on the hook. Make 3 or 4 turns of the tying silk, crossing over the quill at the same place, letting the hackle pliers dangle on the tip end of the hackle feather. Then make a half-hitch. When you have done this take your scissors and cut off all of the hackle feather that is left over.

Now, let's stop a moment, lean back and look at what you have done. Compare your fly with the one in the illustration and notice that yours now looks like other flies that you have seen. Maybe it's a little rougher in appearance, but do not let that bother you. The next one you tie will be smoother looking and the important thing is that you are now getting the idea of how a fly is made.

TAPERING THE HEAD. You should still have about one-quarter of an inch left between the front of the hackle and the back of the eye of the hook. Make a few wraps with the tying silk so the head of the fly tapers, and complete the wrap with a half-hitch. In tapering the head of a fly the tying silk should be wrapped so that it comes to a point at the back of the eye. Just in back of the eye there should be very little tying silk; against the hackle the tying silk should be much thicker. To express it differently, the head should be cone-shaped. The small portion (tip) of the cone should be at the eye of the fly and the larger portion (base) of the cone should be just in front of the hackle. This shape head makes is much easier for a fly fisherman to cinch his leader at the eye. Also, it makes a fly very neat in appearance.

Almost anyone can tie on a tail and wrap the body of a fly. A person who is experienced with flies knows this and, consequently, looks at three other parts of a fly to judge how well it is tied. These are the wing, the hackle and the tapered head. These three parts show the quality of the fly and the care which has been taken in tying it.

THE WHIP FINISH. One of the most difficult steps to teach, or for a student to grasp, is the whip finish, if it is done without using a whip-finishing tool. If you believe this step is too difficult, I suggest that you purchase a whip-finisher. But do not do so until you have given these instructions a thorough try. The whip-finisher tool will simplify the process that I will explain to you and the use of the whip-finisher can be mastered in just a few minutes. But, if you are interested in learning the whip finish by hand, you will find this next paragraph worth the effort. One thing about making a whip finish by hand is that no matter how large or how small the fly, you will still be able to taper a very neat head. Now, let's try it, by hand.

Grasp the tying silk in the fingers of your left hand, holding the tying silk at a point about six inches from the head of the fly. Draw it out to your left side. Spread your right hand out flat, with the fingers together and the palm down, and extend it directly under the tying silk. Make a half turn of your right hand, letting the tying silk roll a little toward the tip of your fingers; carry the tying silk to the head of the fly, crossing over the tying silk which extends from your left hand. When the tying silk has been brought to the shank of the hook, cross over the strand of tying silk that extends to the left, release this silk held by your left hand and wrap over the tying silk that is laying on the shank of the hook. Do not go in front of it. Make 4 turns around the hook. When you have completed the fourth turn place the forefinger of your right hand at the head of the fly, take the free end of the tying silk in your left hand and pull the free end until the loop disappears entirely. If the tying silk does not pull easily, or if it tangles in any way, you have made a mistake and the operation should be repeated. Once you have mastered this process you will be able to make a very neat head on all your flies, tapering from a large portion or base in front of the hackle to a very fine point in back of the eye. It is worth trying. Study the diagrams as well as the description of the steps; keep on trying until you have solved it.

Always whip finish the head of each fly. It insures that the tying silk will not unravel. It is a mark of a job well done.

LACQUERING THE HEAD. As the final step place a drop of lacquer on the head of the fly. With a good light fly head lacquer placed on the head of the fly you will find that the fly is completed and will hold together under the worst conditions. There are various types of solutions used and they are marketed under various names. Get your fly head lacquer from a reputable supply house and you will not be sold inferior solutions for this purpose.

THE FLY PATTERN. The patterns of flies are commonly shown in a form which is widely used. The pattern of the Grey Hackle, yellow body, which you have just tied, would be shown as follows:

GREY HACKLE (Dry)

Hook:               No. 6-No. 18
Tail:                  Red hackle fibres, 6-8
Body:               Yellow floss*
Hackle:             Barred hackle, tied dry

* Alternate bodies: Peacock herl; red floss.

The numbers shown under the heading "Hook" indicates the range of sizes of hooks upon which this pattern of fly is commonly tied. Here it means that the Grey Hackle fly is tied on hooks ranging in size from No. 6 to No. 18, any size hook between those two extremes being used at appropriate times and places.

The designation "Dry" indicates that this is a pattern for a dry-tied fly. If the hackle is put on one way it produces a fly which will float on the water, a dry fly. If the hackle is reversed, the tendency of the fly will be to sink under the surface, a wet fly. In the second lesson you will learn the difference and be able to have the same fly with either a surface or undersurface use.

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