I'm still in the process of learning to tie spey flies but here are some ones that I tied yesterday. I'll be using these on the North Umpqua next week.
I usually don't attach a name to the flies until I catch a fish on them. The very first spey fly I tied and caught a fish on is now called Morning Pipe.......Pipe Hole on the North Umpqua. I'm just learning to tie spey flies and have much to learn. My bodies, ribbing, and hackling are coming along nicely but I still have trouble with wings. It's all a learning process and it's something that I'm really enjoying.
The wings on those particular flies are goose shoulder. I'm getting the wings set to far on top of the hook instead of covering more of the shoulder. It seems when I set them lower on the shoulder then when I go to tighten the thread it creates a crease in the wing....so I don't know if I need to reduce the size of the wing by a few fibers or something else? Now, when I tie using bronze mallard I'm not having any problems at all...it seems the hardest part about setting bronze mallard is getting two feathers that are pretty close to being indentical in shape and size. If anyone has any suggestions on my wings please don't hesitate to say something.....I'm all about learning.
I have noticed that the quality of materials of both the bronze mallard and the goose shoulder have allot to do with how the wing turns out. Some of the stuff you get is really junk, and it takes some high grading to get decent materials. Having said that then there is the part where you actually need to practice tying these wings a bit before you get it down. I cant claim to be an expert, but its just what I’ve noticed. Actually your wings look pretty good to me (the whole fly looks really good, well crafted). There have been some pretty good and instructive posts on this page regarding the tying of these types of wings, and although the explanation may seem technical, Its important to study it carefully because there are some critical points that either make or break a successful wing. The soft loop technique is an example. Then using a small amount of head cement to set the wing and leaving it until its actually set. I for one am an instant gratification type and its really hard for me not to fiddle with it.
Not all feathers are created equal and that is very true of the bronze Mallard. Only top quality, clean feathers are suitable for Spey wings. The feathers need to be matched exactly in every regard for the wings to be successful. If the wings are tied down over the side, they will try to split on you. Wings should cover the top half of the hook (9:00 to 3:00).
I trim the hackle from the top of my Speys so they don't kick up the wings. Also, having a flat smooth area without any bump of body material to seat the wings is essential. Bumps will also kick the wings up. These points while also important for Dees are not quite as important.
I created a tying lesson for tying Speys & Dees here http://flyanglersonline.com/flytying/atlantic/spey-dee/index.html
Happy Trails!
Ronn
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