Keith Passant shows us how to get the proportions right on a fly.
Nope I don’t do politics. What I do is a bit of fly-tying. And the keyword in this little article is proportion. Pete and I were discussing the ways of the world and how we would put it right (no politics honest) and the subject of proportions in fly-tying came up. I am aiming this article at people that are new to tying and not members of a club or group that has someone to help you in gaining this necessary skill. Nowadays, and I admit to falling in to this trap occasionally, it seems to be a case of get as much stuff on a hook as possible. Not lots of different stuff just too much of it. Now in some cases that is a required element. Saltwater and pike flies for example need to have a big presence in the water. A size 16 Clouser doesn’t really do it in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean chasing big Permit. Likewise a 6/0 Goddard Emerger might be the wrong fly to use in a BWO hatch on the Test.
So the first part of proportions has to be the right size of hook to the fly we want to tie. Now I intend to look at river or stillwater flies here rather than flies for big old flesh eating species. The hook has to be the main player in tying. By that I mean we need to get the right type of hook for our flies. When I started tying there were a pretty limited number and styles of hook around. There were dry fly, wet fly and lure hooks. And it was easy to decide what hook to use. A dry fly hook had an up eye, a wet had a down eye and a lure hook was bigger than all of them! That’s not the case today. There are hundreds of hook styles and suppliers out there and the up eye down eye thing is history pretty much. Wire weight is a good start point. Without teaching you to suck eggs as it were here is a description of a hook to help explain the parts.
Most hook packets have info on them for you to decide if it’s the right hook that you need.
This is what it all means.
U/E or D/E. Up eye or Down eye.
1XF is 1 times finer or lighter than a standard weight wire for all hooks. It can be more than 1XF but not too often. If it’s too fine you compromise the strength of the hook. This can also be seen as 1, 2 or 3X Heavy. This meaning 1, 2 or 3 times the weight of the standard hook wire. You may see this description on wet or lure hooks. As with all things there are extremes. Up to 5X Fine and 4X Heavy.
Forged refers to how the hook is shaped. If you look at some hooks you can see the wire in the bend has been flattened. This is where it has been forged and this process makes the hook stronger by approximately 25%.
Then there may be a description of the bend of the hook. They can be a Perfect bend, Continuous bend, Round bend, Limerick bend, Sneck or Circle. There are other types too but the most common are the perfect or round bend. Reversed or Kirby bend refers to whether the hook point is offset at all and whether is offset to the left or right. By Offset I mean out of line from the shank of the hook.
There is a lot more to the hook than we have room for here but a good spot to look in to it more is at the Mustad link here http://www.mustad.no/230912www/products/hookanatomy.html
Hopefully that clears up any murky areas on hooks and what all the info means.
Ok so I want to tie a dry fly. Say a simple(ish) hackled dry like a Large Dark Olive pattern.
It’s a fly that I would tie on a size 12 or 14 hook. However which hook? If it was tied on a long shank lure hook it probably has very little chance of floating and as a dry fly that’s really what I want it to do. Float. Similarly a wet fly hook pattern would do it no good so a light wire hook is needed. Then the shank length comes in to play. Too long and it’s not going to look right. And of course conversely a hook that is too short would look wrong too. So a standard length hook shank on a light wire dry fly hook is what I want.
Now for the actual fly proportions. When we get them right the fly just looks right. It’s well balanced and it’s going to fish just how we want it to. With this fly the things I want proportionally right are the tail, the abdomen and the hackle. The tail needs to be considered for length as does the body and the hackle length. And surprise surprise there are a few aids on the hook to give you the right information on how these parts of the fly should measure up.
Firstly let’s just clear up one more thing that seems lacking in today’s descriptions of flies. In the old days when Adam was a lad the fly patterns were generally listed as to how the materials were tied in. So a typical pattern recipe for this fly might have been:
Hook. Description of what hook to use. Here it would be “Dry Fly 12-14”
Thread: In this case Olive and sometimes thread diameter t would be listed too. 8/0 would be a popular dry fly size.
Tail: Olive COCK hackle fibres. Sometimes a quantity required is shown. In this case 8 to 10.
Body or Abdomen: Olive thread or Quill. That could be stripped feather or peacock quill.
Hackle: Olive dyed Cock Hackle.
Simple information but if you consider it then it is also logical to tying the fly and helping with the proportions of the pattern. Now what about those hints on the hook for getting the proportions right?
Well starting with putting on the thread. What? Yup the thread. I know you are all aware of how to start your tying thread on a hook but when you run it down the shank where do you stop? The pointer here is literally that. The Point of the barb on the hook or on a barbless hook where a barb might have been cut is the spot to stop.
This is what I want.
Not this.
Now we get on to the tail. What length does that need to be? In this case I am looking for a length equal to the length of the shank. That will give a good look and balance to the fly.
This.
Not this.
Abdomen or body length is again governed by the shank length. This time the body needs to be 2/3rds the length of the shank.
This is about right.
If you go a tad too far adjust it.
Finally we can tie in the hackle. The hackle length is determined by the Gape of the hook. That’s the distance between the point of the hook and the shank of the hook. The hackle needs to be about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ times the Gape of the hook. And the amount of hackle on this fly needs to be the last third of the shank up to the eye of the hook so that will possibly be about six turns of genetic hackle. I say genetic hackle for the simple reason the stem will be finer than the less expensive feathers and enable you to get a denser hackle.
If I was tying in a dry fly with a split wing the sizes of the wing would be equal to the length of the shank and the 2/3rds the Gape of the hook.
One last point. I see flies tied fairly well and then ruined by the last action of tying the head. What I call Concorde heads. Here are two flies side by side. Concorde and Nay Neck! You choose your favourite.
Proportions on flies are IMHO really important. They are the building blocks for you to produce good looking flies and taking care to get this part right will probably mean you take a little time on the fly and thus produce more durable and effective patterns. Of course there are exceptions to every rule and sometimes there is a good reason for changing the proportions. However I hope you are able to pick up a few pointers to take your fly tying on to another level. If you have any questions don’t be shy. Get in touch and let’s see what we can do to help.
Keith Passant is fishing manager at the Orvis Burford store. If you are passing it is worth a visit but I guarantee you'll end up talking fishing with Keith for hours.
He is also a fly casting instructor. Visit his website for more details