Partridge & Yellow with Pearsall's

[Soft-hackle]

Partridge & Yellow

Hook: Mustad R48 #12
Thread: Pale Yellow Pearsall's Gossamer (Thanks Roy)
Hackle: Brown Hungarian Partridge
Abdomen: Pearsall's Primrose Marabou Floss, tied with no tying thread under it.
Thorax: Hare's Mask Mix

[willowhead]

It's beautiful.....VERY nice.....question. Can you tell me why you stopped the body a tiny bit short? i would like it either way just as much. Makes no difference to me.....just curious.

[michaelgmcgraw]

I like Pearsall"s marabou floss. I use it once in a while. I can't claim to do traditional flies with total accuracy because I use very fine wire ribbing on many of my flies due to the trout raking the bodies with their teeth. I tie sturdy flies.
I give lots of flies to my friends and fisherman I meet on the stream.

[Soft-hackle]

Hi,
Mark,
I usually stop my bodies so that if you drew a line from the stopping point of the body, down to the hook barb, it'd fall at the half-way point of the barb length. This hook is short shank, and it may look short because of that. It also overemphasizes the width of the gape as well. It might use a touch more abdomen,(The slightest bit more) but it's pretty close to the half way point.

Michael,
Ribbing certainly can and certainly does help in many ways. Often, flosses have a tendency to slip backwards on the shank. A wrap or two of wire or tinsel as a tag and ribbing the body helps prevent this, too.

Mark

[willowhead]

Hi Mark tkx.,

[michaelgmcgraw]

Thanks Mark for the reply. Good tip on the tag. On some flies I do leave a small tag for a bit of flash before wrapping the rib.
For the most part I tye very somber flies. Sorry if I interfered with the thread folks.

[crazy4oldcars]

Michael,
No interference at all. I learned something. I never considered that the tag might be there for a thread stop. I had just thought it was to provide a flash at the back of the fly, maybe as an air bubble.

Kirk

[chase creek]

Lovely fly, Mark. First word that comes to my mind is "calm".
A pleasure to look at.
Thanks for posting.

[willowhead]

What you guys generally refer to as a tag.....is actually called a tip in Atlantic Salmon Fly Tying.....and yes it was "invented" (for lack of a better word) to protect the "Tag" (usually made of floss), from slipping. Not all Atlantic Salmon flies have a tip and a tag.....a LOT do. Some have only a tip and some have only a tag. In classic Atlantic Salmon fly tying, the tip and or tag is to take up no more space on the shank and should be placed on the shank directly above the area between the point of the barb and the point of hook itself. The tip is usually no more than five turns and usually just 3 or 4, and then the tag takes up the remaining space until your above the hook point.
Spey flies differ in that they (their entire body including any tip and or tag, which they generally don't have anyway), are kept entirely ahead of the hook point. Your basic Spey fly has nothing to the rear of the hook point.
But remember, alllllllll of this is old scholl (nothin' wrong with that), stuff and nowdays (specially in free-style tyin'), anything is cool. i really have no idea how tips started being called tags.......and it really doesn't matter what you call it as long as those involved understand eachother You know how it goes with nomenclactures(sp?).....
Modern blind eye hook design has allowed us to be able to do some pretty wild things with our tips and or tags......the (sometimes) added distance between the two "points" is really cool......REALLY cool.