Composite hackle

[cicvara]

Really nice,bravo,very beautiful and harmonious.

[CreationBear]

[ADVANTAGE/i]: Mr. Gartside.

Ha, thanks gents. That's my first Sparrow, and you really have to get one in your vise to appreciate what a superior fly design it is...I feel a new obsession taking hold.

[CreationBear]

Will you describe, in some detail your body and hackle technique.

Actually not a lot of moving parts here--basically, one dubbing loop will suffice. In this case, I tie in a length of "disassembled" Pearsall's Marabou floss for a loop at the rear of the fly, load it with dubbing, then spin and wrap toward the thorax area. At that point, I tie down the brush with my working thread, then unwind the remaining floss to form a loop again, which is again loaded with a thin coating of dubbing.

At this point, you can insert whatever "burned" feather fibers you want into the loop on top of the dubbing, separating and spreading them up and down the loop, then evening the tips so they will give you the length of hackle you want. Holding tension on the loop (and using some of Bill's "magic" wax is helpful here as well ) it's a simple matter to trim away the butt-ends of the feather fibers that are sticking outside the loop as you might when constructing a hair-hackle.

Then--still holding tension on the loop so the materials inside don't shift and/or fall out--I pinch the bottom of the loop between my thumb and forefinger and give the dubbing hook a spin. Once the floss is torqued enough, I release my "pinch" and let the floss close the loop. With the "hackle brush" thus formed, it's a simple matter of aligning the fibers as you wrap up toward the eye.

At any rate, it's a technique that opens up a few more hackling options--I could see, for instance, burning Amherst pheasant tail or perhaps the tail feathers of a ruffed grouse or other gamebird; another thought might be to created "combination hackles" of different lengths and colors as you wrap through the thorax area. I'd definitely love to see what y'all come up with.

[William Anderson]

Thanks. All three of these are striking. So a couple follow up questions. Is the last fly also tied on the 200R #10 (2x long)? The scale of the materials compliment each other very well, so it's deceiving in a sense. And what is the composition of the dubbing for this? Some of the fibers included are longer than the pheasant tail barbs. It's a nice effect. What's next?

[CreationBear]

Is the last fly also tied on the 200R #10 (2x long)?

Yes, because some of my fish are, you know, just that selective.

At any rate, the dubbing mix for the body is 50/50 claret and hot orange seal (kind of a Valhalla Rising vibe I picked up from one of Hans' flies ) in a floss loop; for the thorax I cut that mixture with a bit of raccoon underfur to get a little bit tighter matrix on which to lay the GP feather fibers. (To be honest, most of my dubbing mixes are composed from whatever detritus escapes the Swifter on my tying bench. ) FWIW, there's also a red GP shoulder hackle tied in as a collar, just in case...

At any rate, I'll definitely look forward to some of y'all trying your hand at a little smaller flies--it might be just a way to add "Sili-legs" to a pattern with organic materials, but at least you'll be able to look at yourself in the mirror.

[William Anderson]

Thanks Jon. I've been looking at Gartside's flies since you first posted these and they look like a good direction for the Smallie swap flies. You set a high bar. Thanks for the help.

w

[Kelly L.]

Jon, these are supreme. The last one was the prettiest to look at. (to me) But the middle one seems to catch my eye for most fishable. Although the top one is beautiful, love that look too. I will tell you...shhhh....the Gartside S p a r r o w is one of my top producing warm flies. I usually keep quiet on that, but it is a killer fly in my arsenal. You have indeed raised the bar extremely high here. Bravo. I want to see MORE.

[CreationBear]

the Gartside S p a r r o w is one of my top producing warm flies

Ha, I bet--should make a killer damselfly nymph, which was my "go to" fly back when I was fishing for creek bass down in Alabama. Otherwise, I hope some of y'all jump on this thread...

[CreationBear]

A few more "composite Sparrows" tonight:







Over-egged the puddin', no doubt, but as testbeds it's a great technique for mixing and matching materials to see what works.

[DUBBN]

Spectacular.