Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (peregrines) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:50:07 GMT

John, you may find this link helpful. There's a an interesting SBS, but at the end there's also a set of 3 hackle gauges used by the Dettes that you can print out and laminate. http://www.flyanglersonli...ing/fotw2/112904fotw.php mark

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (catskilljohn) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:48:48 GMT

quashnet wrote:
In the late 1970's, The American Fly Fisher published a photo piece called "Quill Gordon." Several Quill Gordon flies from the AMFF collection, each produced by a different fly tier, were photographed in a group. In the center was a fly by Theodore Gordon, and surrounding it were Quill Gordons by Art Flick, Ray Bergman, Rube Cross, and many other tiers. A...

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (creakycane) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:18:59 GMT

Both great ties - Fow what its worth, I try to make my Catkill dries closer in overall impression to the one on the left, with the hackle length perhaps ideally slightly shorter (1.75!), bunched tight and with space at the eye - and a tail like the one of the left. I like to make the woodduck wings stick out of the hackle slightly. But, I like to tied a variety, some for slow water, some for pocket water, some that are more like 13's on 12 hooks etc etc......

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (quashnet) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:40:52 GMT

In the late 1970's, The American Fly Fisher published a photo piece called "Quill Gordon." Several Quill Gordon flies from the AMFF collection, each produced by a different fly tier, were photographed in a group. In the center was a fly by Theodore Gordon, and surrounding it were Quill Gordons by Art Flick, Ray Bergman, Rube Cross, and many other tiers. A similar photo called "Cahills" was published in another issue of

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (catskilljohn) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:33:21 GMT

Thanks for the input guys.

narco, that was one of the reasons I am getting a little mixed up, because 2X hackle is approaching some tyers variant territory. I have been looking over flies from various tyers, and it seems everyone has there own style. Ed VanPut seems to use the 1.5X hackle collar, and stands his wings upright at a 20* angle.
Dave Brandt uses what looks like less than a 1.5X hackle collar, and his Dun Variant is just at the 2X. He sells a gauge to test your...

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (narcodog) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 11:42:32 GMT

If you tie at 1.5 gap for the Catskill dry's would you also reduce the hackle on a variant to say 3x instead of 4x?

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (waltryan1) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:06:28 GMT

I like the look f both flies but the 1 1/2 x gap hackle looks more "right" to me. I keep going back to A.K. Best's book "Production Fly Tying" when I have questions on proportion.

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (tbc1415) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 13:25:38 GMT

Both are very nice ties.
When I see longer length hackles like the 2x it brings to mind older pre-19?? flies.
This is not based on a focused study of Catskill flies, just my impression based on wherever such general impressions come from. Probably from older illustrations vs modern photographs. I think the 1.5X looks like a more developed or modernized version of the 2X. This of course is looking at it from the year 2009 perspective.

In summary
Great work, reduce...

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (roycestearns) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:53:00 GMT

Nice ties John.

Have you thrown the two proportions in the water... any difference?

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (Marty) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:03:30 GMT

Nice looking flies!!!! For myself, I stick to the 1.5 hackle and full length of shank tail. That said I do not use a gauge. I put a hook in the vise and use that for reference to pull the hackle for however many I am going to tie of that pattern/ size (just the way I learned too long ago to change now). For the rough mountain streams I do overhackle a bit for higher floatation and double gap is about the right amount IMHO. To my eye for display the one of the right looks more correct....

Re: Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (HFR53) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:54:53 GMT

What I think the reasoning behind the Dettes proportions may be is that it stretched the usefullness of a India neck out,more hackle and smaller sized flies per neck,I used to do the same thing before Metz became available

Proportions, hackle gauges, and things that make me nuts...

feeds@yuku.com (catskilljohn) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:14:23 GMT

Someone asked me a while ago why I cut my hair so short. The answer to that is easy, its so I dont pull it all out during the time I am tying flies.

I constantly struggle with proportons, and just when I think I get in a groove, I see something or hear some advise that has me starting over again. This new book I have is a good example. Kuttner told me to "study the plates", and I know what he means. I brought a dozen drys for him to look at, and he advised me the tails...