|
A
SPECIAL TYING TECHNIQUE
The special technique I use to produce the tail
I like very much and I got a lot of very nice
compliments during my demonstrations. The
completed tying technique is a mixture of Oliver
Edwards techniques mixed my own idea’s, which
produce a beautiful tying technique for any
realistic nymph pattern today.
Step 1
Cut of a nice strip of Flexibody or latex. You
should slightly taper it at the end and tie it
in by its fine tip. (Taper it from 1.5mm up to
maximum about 2.5mm wide) Put the strip in a
hackle plier. Stretch it a little and make you
first winding around the hookshank. Hold on the
tension and ensure that your next winding
slightly overlaps the previous one. Let the
plier hang down and put some extra weight on it.
(This is why I produce my own tool for keeping
it under tension)
Step 2
Tie in the first tail fibre exactly on top of
the hookshank and lay it over the just finished
wrappings of flexibody. This will be the centre
of the tail. I prefer Emu or peccary because
they are stiff, durable and more tapered.
Step 3
Make two more windings with the flexibody around
the hookshank and base of the tail. Now take the
two other tails and tie them in at each side of
the hookshank. This technique will form the left
and right side of the split tail. Because of the
underbody of flexibody and tension of the tying
thread the tail will spit automatically to left
and right as soon as you secure them with your
tying thread. Now make a nice, slim but tapered
underbody of tying thread.
Step 4
Continue the body with the flexibody and let
each turns overlaps the previous one again. Make
a tapered body not further until 2/3 of the
hookshank is covered. Don’t cut the flexibody
but let it hang down under tension again.
Step 5
Tie in four small pieces of olive coloured
feather herls on both sides of the hookshank.
Those will produce the wing-buds in step 7. Pull
them backwards and continue the body with two
more and very close overlapping windings of the
flexibody. Now you can cut off the flexibody.
Step 6
Take the piece of flexibody that is left and tie
it in again on top of the hookshank and pull it
backward in the same direction as the herls.
Step 7
Take now a small partridge hackle. Tie it in at
the tip on the hookshank with the fibres
pointing backward and inner side on top. Pul the
partridge feather over the flexibody so it is
not in the way.
Step 8
Spin on some dubbing for your thorax and wind it
up to the hook eye. Leave about 1 or 2mm space.
Pull the partridge hackle over the thorax so
that you get same number of fibres on each side
of the hookshank and secure the hackle well.
Then pull the two herls crossword over the
hackle to pull the fibres down and produce the
legs of the insect. Secure it all with the
flexibody (wingcase) by pulling it over the
feather and herls and use only two windings of
your thread to keep it tight. DON"t cut the
strip yet. It should be pointing over the hook
eye now.
Step 9
Take a piece of monofil and burn two equal eyes
at each side. The best way is to burn it between
a pair of tweezers. Burn them as close as you
can. Let the eyes cool down and tie it in
exactly at the place where you secured the
flexibody. Use figure of eight knots to make it
most durable. Spin on just a slightly bit of
dubbing to camouflage the windings.
Step 10
Now pull the strip of flexibody backwards again
between the eyes and tie it off after the eyes
and in front of the legs. Cut off the strip
halfway the wingcase.
Step 11
Pick out the dubbing with velcro and check the
legs. Varnish your windings and the result will
be a beautiful and perfect imitation of a
realistic damsel. The same technique you can use
for many nymph imitations too.
|
