I tied my own for over 30 years and have switched to furling for all my dry fly leaders. Get the book Drag Free Drift for a great read on making and refining your leaders.

I prefer using a long tag end of the tying thread(as you mentioned) or another thread for the rib for durability. If the tying thread exposed as the tag and rib are cut then the body is free to unravel. I feel the thread buried in the dubbing is less likely to come apart. I have caught many fish on ...

Mike. Nice discussion on dubbing but I differ on the only sensible method unless a divorce is the object. :D I did a lot of loose dubbing dying since that is the only way my wife's lop eared rabbit would shed it for my tying and I use Rit since it is easy to find down at a local store instead of bet...

Hans I tend to agree that the head may not even be necessary when other triggers like the soft hackle are prominent but then we do place emphasis on some eyes like on the damsel fly head. For all I know the trigger may be the colored head on my fly seen eating a small bronze doughnut. :mrgreen: Tigh...

Hans

I don't think the fish see the eye as any more a part of the fly triggering a response than all the exposed shank, bend , barb, & point sticking out of the fly. With the possible exception of some midges like my red hook midge where the exposed hook is almost the entire fly.

Hans I am at the opposite end on the spectrum and tie a head that I think is representative of the head of an insect on the fly using a thread color that will match the fly. For example this Starling and Herl. http://www.westfly.com/photopost/data/500/medium/IMGP0351.JPG I think of the head as an in...

I have to say that I am like Klass and enjoy many styles of body depending on what I am imitating or how the fly will be fished. But hands down I love dubbing and have used a blender or a coffee mill to mix and match my own for decades. I can tell Hans is partial to Argentine Hare of late. Not quite...

Hi Mike!

Are you trying to inspire me to dust off my 500 micron D frame kick net and send a sample to the Bug Lab http://www1.usu.edu/buglab/ or merely troll for samples to tie represenntative soft hackles. It is nice to have a little collection near the tying table.