First "proper" Soft Hackle

[William Anderson]

Darin, as Hans noted, you've been given very good responses to help as you move forward. My only comment would be congradulations. You'll discover the nuances as you continue to tie, as in your first 50, first 100 spiders. And you're going to want a few in a few colors in a number of different sizes, so that's not an unreasonable expectation. It's just the practice of these things that will help you discover your own preferences. And then you get to define "proper" for yourself. Fishing them will also create a likely addiction to these things.

w

[Old Hat]

I would have to honestly disagree with all 4 of your suspected problems. As all of them are a matter of preference and what effect you are after in your hatch matching endeavors.

Well accomplished spider.

[Dwclapp]

Thank you everyone for the comments, criticisms, and advice. I am digesting all that has been said and will be trying the various techniques suggested. I'll post as my skills progress.

Darin

[Dwclapp]

If I were to offer one bit of advice, it would be to tye the hackle in by the stem, as close to the eye of the hook as you can. With practice, you should be able to secure the hackle stem within two wraps of the hook eye. When the body and thorax are finished, wrap the hackle back towards the thorax and then wrap the thread forward thru the hackle. A simple three turn whip finish should be all that is needed to complete the fly.

Thank you so much for suggesting I try this method. I tried it for the first time last evening. It definitely allowed me to create a smaller/neater head than going the other way.

Thanks,
Darin

[Hans Weilenmann]

Darin,

May I suggest you take a look at one of the video I added to my youtube channel some time back. It may give you some ideas to play with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufFNP-lUYTc

Do me a favor and set it to HD playback first

Cheers,
Hans W

[Dwclapp]

Hans,

I viewed your above mentioned video (In HD ) and have a question... After wrapping the tying thread thru the hackle to behind the eye do you take an additional turn or do you go directly into the whip finish? Would an extra turn add any strength to the whip finish by having the whip end resting on waxed silk rather than the bare metal of the hook or would it just add unnecessary bulk?

Thanks!!
Darin

[Hans Weilenmann]

Darin,

The head is typically only the three turn whip finish, over bare metal.

More examples on the channel - if you are interested.

Cheers,
Hans W

[Donald Nicolson]

An excellent post.
Hans and Davie are two of the best Instructor/Dressers on Internet. You can't go wrong with them.