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Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:21 pm
by letumgo
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Aftershaft Partridge Egg
Hook - Partridge Patriot Czech Nymph Barbless Competition Hook (Size #10/formerly size 16)
Thread - 8/0 UNI-Thread (Red)
Tail - Partridge Rump Aftershaft Feather (Natural Grey)
Egg Body - Egg Yarn (Apricot or color of choice) - Formed in a dubbing loop. The red thread core forms an inner color element.
Hackle - Partridge Rump Feather (Natural Gray)
Head - Tying thread

Design notes: I wanted a more lively egg pattern for steelhead fishing. I created this pattern this morning and hope to get out to fish with it soon. The tail is a patridge aftershaft plume, and the hackle is partridge flank (rump) feathers. They are added to give the fly lots of delicate movement as it drifts along. The pattern is intended to imitate the milky look of natural fertilized fish eggs.

Materials:
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Partridge Skin. The feathers for this pattern come from the region at the rear flank (rump) of the bird. See the point of the scissors.
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Hooks (notice the interesting size designations - these are size 10, but formerly size 16 hooks)
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The photo below shows a couple feathers. The one on the left is as the feather appears coming straight off the skin. As the name implies, the "aftershaft" feather is hidden behind the main feather. Pluck the small aftershaft feather off and set it aside. Then strip all the fluff off the base of the main feather. On the right hand side of the photo, you can see the feathers after they have been prepared (aftershaft feather and main hackle feather).
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Close up view of the prepared feathers. Before I use the aftershaft feather, I like to strip off the bottom 3/16" inch section and clip off the little bulb at the base of the stem. Removing this bulb will make the stem lay flat and prevents a lump in the underbody.
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Prepare the egg yarn by running a bodkin needle thru the bundle to open up all the fibers. Then trim off a section of the desired width (roughly the diameter of the egg you want to form).
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Here is the prepared egg yarn fibers. This material will be used later in the construction of the fly.
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Mount the hook in the vice and then cast on the tying thread, near the center of the hook. Lay down a small thread base, then to tie in the tail.
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Form a dubbing loop with the tying thread and carefully insert the section of prepared egg yarn fibers. In this case I am using a Wasatch tool called a Mitch's Bobbin Whirler. It forms a three strand thread dubbing loop. I chose red tying thread to give the inner egg a darker red coloration when it gets wet. Hopefully this will look more like a natural egg.
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Spin the dubbing loop to fully capture the egg yarn fibers. Once this is done, run a piece of Velcro over the dubbing brush to ensure the individual strands of egg yarn fibers are separated. You should be able to see the inner thread core thru the egg yarn fibers.
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Wrap the dubbing brush forward in close touching turns. With your vice hand, stroke back the egg yarn fibers with each wrap forward, so that the yarn fibers do not get trapped under the tying thread. This ensures a fuller egg shape, and results in firmer thread wraps and a more durable finished fly.

Tye in the hackle feather by the stem, with the tip facing out over the eye of the hook.
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Clip the tip of the feather with hackle pliers, then stroke the fibers all to one side of the steam, folding the hackle. Next make two hackle wraps back towards the egg body. Wrap the tying thread forward thru the hackle, reinforcing it. Secure with two wraps of thread and clip off the hackle tip.
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Form a neat head with double three turn whip finishes.
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The finished fly, ready for fishing.
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Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:54 pm
by zen leecher
Creative use of globug yarn. Two thumbs up and a very nice fly!

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 6:59 pm
by letumgo
Thanks Bill. ;)

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 7:36 pm
by ScottP
Ray,

That is a very cool fly; thanks for the tutorial.

Regards,
Scott

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 10:48 pm
by redietz
I would think that this might be a good candidate for a bit of weight under the dubbing. Or is that against the regs where you fish for steelhead?

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2015 11:01 pm
by Ron Eagle Elk
Nice SBS, Ray. Appreciate it. That looks like it will do the business.

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:53 am
by hankaye
Ray, Howdy;

Outstanding SBS! What I like about it is you attention to the minutia.
For us that have crawled slightly beyond the novice phase such added
bits of information are invaluable. Example, "Fold the hackle and make
two wraps back towards the egg body." The bit of which way to go with
the hackle is often left to the discretion of the tyer. In my case I end
up going the wrong way then need to re-do it. The other bit that truly
helps the novice is your attention to the details of the after-shaft, the
what, where, and how to is a SBS in an SBS itself, Well done.

Thanks for finding out how to free it from Google's evil clutches :D

hank

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 12:48 pm
by Ruard
Hi Ray,

Nice to see that you use the dubbing needle I made for you. Nice fly too and I think you did change the use of a egg this is more like a streamer and perhaps there is no need to fish it without moving it.

Wasatch tool called a Mitch's Thread Bobbin: I do not know this tool, what is it and why you make a loop with 3 threads?

Greeting

Ruard

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 7:17 pm
by letumgo
Ruard,

I think you have come up with a great name for the fly. It could be called an "Egg-Stream" pattern (sounds like "extreme" in English - meaning part egg/part streamer). :D

Here is a link to a YouTube video, showing the Mitch's Bobbing Whirler in action. The way the tool works is there is a standard dubbing loop plus the main tying thread. These three strands get twisted together when the dubbing brush is formed.

YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0yd5qpKaFQ

Wasatch Mitch's Bobbin Whirler (product photo from Amazon):
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Jim Slattery may carry these on his website (http://www.jimsflyco.com/bobbin/wasatch ... im-bobbin/)

Hank - You're very welcome. I am glad you liked the minutia.

Bob - I think your right. A little wire could be wrapped onto the hook to help make it a little heavier. I am planning to fish this first unweighted, to see how it behaves. Then I was planning to clip off the fly, slide a metal bead onto the tipped and reattach the fly for further testing. Inner weighting would probably be the best choice, but that's yet to be tested.

Re: Aftershaft Partridge Egg Tutorial (milky soft hackle egg)

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:16 am
by Ruard
Thank you Ray for the information. Egg-stream is a good name!


greeting


Ruard