Montreal

(Click on the image to get a larger jpeg version)

Materials

Hook: wet fly hook
Thread: claret
Tail: claret hackle fibers
Body: claret floss
Rib: flat silver tinsel
Hackle: claret
Wing: mottled hen quill

Tying Instructions

1.

Attach the thread to the hook, and wind toward the bend. Snip off a few fibers of claret saddle, and tie them in for the tail. They should be roughly as long as the shank of the hook. (i.e. the same length as it is between where you tie them in, and the eye of the hook)

2.

Tie in the tinsel and the floss, securing the other end of the tinsel somewhere to keep it out of the way. Then build the floss body about 3/4 of the way up the hook. Two things are important here:

a.)

When you are winding the floss, keep it away from the hook point. it could snag it and break a few of the fibers. Then you'd have a frayed floss body. As a general rule, its best that floss-fraying be done by the trout, and not the tyer...

b.)

When you are winding the floss, it is also useful to place it in a bobbin so that you minimize contact between it and your greasy fingers. This helps it keep its shine. More than likely you can find a bobbin with a wider tube at your local fly shop -- often they are called "material bobbins".

3.

Tie off the floss, and wrap the tinsel rib. Normally I'd say to wrap the tinsel in the opposite direction you wrapped the floss, but apparently I didn't do that on this fly. Must've had a bad batch of Cheerios that day...

4.

Tie off the tinsel, and attach the hackle to the hook. It seems to work best if you use a "folded" hackle technique here. This requires a touch of preparation before attaching the hackle to the hook. Hold the tip of the hackle in one hand, and carefully stroke the fibers back to the stem, making them stand out. Then tie the hackle in at the "V" between the normal hackle fibers in the tip and the hackle fibers that stand out. As you are then wrapping the hackle, you fold the fibers back so they all point towards the tail. You can do this by pinching the feather in half lengthwise as you are winding it. Do a few wraps, tie it off and clip it.

5.

Once you have the hackle in, tightly wrap a thin foundation (single layer) of thread up to the eye of the hook. (assuming there is any bare hook left -- otherwise you should hope that the windings you used to tie off the hackle were pretty tight.) This will help keep the next step from being painful.

6.

Ok, now you're ready for the wings. You need to get two matched wing quills, one from each wing. Clip off a section from each, making sure they are the same size. Place them over the tie in point with the dull sides together, and so the tips point down like in the picture. Now normally this is the point where the person describing this process goes through some complicated explanation involving slinging half a dozen loose loops around the quill sections, saying a couple Hail Mary's, spitting on the wing or your hands, then slowly (or quickly) tightening the thread. You don't need to do this -- and every time I've tried something like that I've gotten twisted wings and/or been struck by lightning. All you need to do is pinch the wings down onto the hook, firmly holding them into place while you tightly wrap the thread. The key seems to be making sure you pinch the wing quills tightly down on the hook, and having that first tight layer of thread (step 5) to keep things from slipping. Once you have a few wraps holding the wing in place, you can let go and finish off the head. Things should go OK as long as you don't reef on the thread while finishing up the fly.

dmason@zebu.uoregon.edu