Pretentious Snobby Bastard Fly Fishing!

Fly Tying Information => Fly Pattern Archive => Wet Flies => Topic started by: troutphisher on April 12, 2006, 19:55:57 PM

Title: Silver Butcher wet
Post by: troutphisher on April 12, 2006, 19:55:57 PM
Hook: Mustad 3906B #14

Thread: Black UNI-Thread 8/0

Body: Silver flat mylar tinsel

Rib:    Silver ultra wire

Legs: Black hackle fibers 

Wing: Matched mallard blue slips

Tail:   Red hackle fibers

Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: shanktrout on April 12, 2006, 20:26:07 PM
Great fly... traditional wets get me pumped
Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: phg on April 13, 2006, 07:27:51 AM
Wet flys will have a large-ish head because that's where the butt ends of the wings are tied down.  That said your's may be a bit larger than is desirable, but not bad.  Silver wire is an acceptable substitute for silver oval tinsel.  A thin piece of mono will also work, you are just trying to give texture to an otherwise smooth body.

Nice fly.  Now let's see what the trout think of it....
Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: plumbob on April 13, 2006, 09:59:03 AM
Nice looking fly, and a real nice job on setting the wings. You can get a much smaller head by tying your throat hackles in differently. It looks like you took some hackles and tyed them on the bottom which is fine but to get a smaller head you should wrap it as a collar and pull the fibers down,and then ty your wing down right in front of the collar. Its hard to explain once you see it done you'll understand.
Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: troutphisher on April 13, 2006, 14:48:51 PM
Plumbob:
your right, I was going to wind the hackle tip to reduce the head size, but I didn't have size 16 or 14 hackle.
So I tied it in beard style under the eye, if I would have had the right size, two maybe three winds, then pull the hackle into position under the hook would have produced a smaller clump. Next time I will use that method.

Thanks.
Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: shanktrout on April 13, 2006, 20:20:29 PM
To be honest... I kind of like the big head look as long as it is tapered and on a sub surface pattern... call me crazy... but big heads say one thing to me...durability!

Here's a softhackled streamer I tied up with a nice big ol glossy head recently:

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Title: Re: Tinsel wet fly
Post by: plumbob on April 13, 2006, 21:20:04 PM
Troutphisher, know what you mean about finding a small enough hackle. And for the most part I would tie all my fishing flys the same as you did, one other thing to watch is make your head wraps with the twist taken out of the thread so it will lay flatter. You tend to try to keep putting on head laquer to try to smooth the thread wraps when all your going to do is create more bulk to the head.Flat thread will give a smooth finish with less bulk, drop of head cement and your good to go.