Tip 6
Find the Sweet Spot of the Hackle
Did you know that a dry fly hackle has a “sweet spot”? This is the part of the feather you want to use to wrap around the hook to create a hackle collar. The sweet spot is the part of the feather where the quill, which is the stem running up the middle of the feather, is very narrow. The sweet spot typically begins about one-third of the way from the base of the hackle; the quill in the bottom one-third of the feather is thicker and will add too much bulk to the fly. Strip all the fibers from the bottom one-third of the feather, clip off most of the thick stem, and then tie the hackle to the hook.
Tip 7
Spade Fibers for the Tail of the Fly
Fly tying legend and longtime American Angler and Fly Tyer contributing author Dick Talleur tied the tails of his high-floating dry flies using fibers from spade hackles. Spade hackles are the feathers found on the sides of a hackle cape. The overall shapes of the feathers do not lend themselves to making nice wrapped collars, but the fibers on these hackles are very stiff and ideal for making tails.
Pluck a spade hackle from the side of the dry fly cape. Strip enough fibers to make the tail of the fly; a real mayfly has three tails, but I prefer 8 to 10 fibers to help the fly float. Measure the bunch of fibers against the hook to determine the length of the finished tail; the overall length of the hook or the length of the hook shank work best. Tie the fibers to the top of the hook shank.
Tip 8
Make Your Own Stripped Peacock Herl
A lot of older patterns call for bodies made using stripped peacock herl; the lovely body on this classic Quill Gordon features a strippedherl body. I suspect you will not find packages of stripped herl in your local fly shop, so you’ll have to make your own. First, you can immerse a bunch of herl in a 50/50 solution of water and bleach to “burn” the fine fibers from the herl. (Quickly wash the solution from the stripped herl in clean water at the end of the burning process.) The second method is to remove the fibers from the herl using an ordinary pencil eraser. Simply stretch a piece of herl on your bench between the thumb and forefinger of one hand, and lightly erase the green fibers from the material.
Tip 9
Use a Hackle Gauge
Do you have trouble selecting the right hackle to match the hook size you are using? This is a common problem, but there is a simple solution: Use a hackle gauge. A hackle gauge is a simple tool used to measure the lengths of the fibers on a feather. Let’s pretend we’re tying a size 10 March Brown and need a hackle to match. Look for the medium-size feathers on a brown hackle cape. Pluck one of the hackles from the cape. Bend the feather around the post on the gauge to splay the fibers. The fibers extend out from the post to a series of lines marked by hook size. If the fibers are too short or long, select a larger or smaller hackle.
