Monday, October 12, 2009

It's a lot easier than it looks















I read somewhere that fly tying is more about capturing the general than mastering the specific. I have also found that there are at least 3 ways to tie every fly.

A few weeks ago, my fly of the day was the Parachute Adams. I posted a link to a site with tying instructions, that was actually pretty good. As I attempted my first 10 or so Parachutes, I thought there must be some form of Zen art form to getting the hackle to wrap around the post. The output of my efforts were more akin to cripples, with a good portion of the hackle fibers getting caught up in the head wrap. In talking to friends of mine who also tie, they have all decided it's easier to buy parachute flies than to tie them. I was about to adopt the same position.

In the course of doing some research on another topic, I stumbled across the Fly Tying Forum. What an awesome find that site is. You can search on just about any topic and find multiple articles, and there are a great bunch of folks there who are more than happy to help you out if you are in a bind.

Once there, I decided to see if there were any tips or tricks to tying a parachute fly. Sure enough, I discovered a video at Hatches TV, that shows a new and much easier way to tie a parachute fly. Here is the link to the video. In the spirit of there being more than one way to tie, the instructor finishes off the fly with some form of adhesive or cement, which I prefer not to use because I really don't want to breathe that cr*p unless absolutely necessary. (I have used the whip finisher around the head, and that seems to work best for me.)

If you have been struggling with the Parachute Adams, take a look at the video, it's a lot easier than it looks.

Tight Lines,

Dave


No comments:

Post a Comment