Fern

[Hans Weilenmann]

Fern
Hook: Grip 14723BL #12
Thread: Benecchi 12/0, grey
Hackle: Pintail barbs, dyed olive
Body hackle: Grizzly, dyed dark dun
Rib: Fine silver wire
Tail: Jungle cock shoulder barbs
Body: Seal's fur, dyed black (or substitute)

Cheers,
Hans W

[DOUGSDEN]

HANS,
YOUR TALENT BETHIND THE VICE CONTINUES TO ASTOUND US! IS THERE NO END TO THE FANTASTIC PATTERNS THAT YOUR CREATE? WHAT IS THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THESE WORKS OF ART?
I NOW MAKE IT PART OF MY ROUTINE IN THE EVENINGS TO CALL UP THIS FORUM AND LOOK INTENTLY FOR YOUR NAME UNDER THE HEADINGS AND WATCH AND STUDY AND LEARN AND MOST OF ALL, ADMIRE!
THANK YOU FOR SHARING AND WANTING TO SHARE WITH ALL OF US WHAT YOU CREATE. YOU ARE A VERY TALENTED INDIVIDUAL AND I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW I APPRECIATE WHAT YOU DO AND HOW YOU DO IT. PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!
I DON'T MEAN TO LEAVE OTHERS OUT IN THIS MOMENT OF ADMIRATION FOR HANS. YOUR TALENTS AND PATTERNS ARE STUDIED AND ADMIRED TOO! PLEASE KEEP POSTING AS WELL!
I FEEL REALLY FORTUNATE TO BE ALLOWED TO "TUNE IN" TO THIS NEW AND EXCITING FORUM TO LEARN FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST!
FROM THE DEN,
DOUGSDEN

[letumgo]

The hook compliments this fly beautifully, Hans. Beautiful fly.

Is there any chance you could do another fly and this time take photos of the tying steps. I want to try this style myself. I am imagining the tying steps as follows (please correct me if I am wrong):

Mount hook in vice
Attach thread at eye of the hook
Tye in the collar hackle (leave feather facing out over the eye of the hook)
Tye in a wire for ribbing the body
Wind the tying thread back to the bend of the hook, securing the rib in place along the length of the hook shank
Tye in the tail fibers
Dub the tying thread and wind forward towards the eye of the hook
Tye in a saddle hackle and palmer it back to the tail of the fly (four or five wraps)
Counter-wind the wire rib forward through the hackle, secure with tying thread clip excess wire
Wrap the collar hackle (two turns folded)
Form head and trim off thread
Two coats of head cement or clear nail polish

[Hans Weilenmann]

Ray,

Close but not quite, at least not on these last two (Fern and Clockwork Orange). The pintail (flank) feather barbs are simply way too long for the hook size to wrap as a collar.

Here is the sequence I used.

For these flies:
1. Attach thread.
2. Stroke out&down a section of pintail barbs away from the quill to align the tips, grasp and tear off.
3. Bunch up the barbs, keeping the tips aligned. Hold them in the bobbin hand.
4. Slip the bunch over the eye of the hook, measure length of barbs, pinch them with off-hand, make a couple tight thread wraps to fix them in place.
5. Look at the bunch, re-check for length, and if needed adjust and tweak. You are aiming for barbs around the full circumference of the hook shank, but have more barbs on upper 180 degrees.
6. Tie in body hackle, by the butt, at this stage, keeping a couple thread wraps space between pintail tie-down and body hackle tie-down.
7. Wrap thread towards bend, trimming pintail barbs in stages to form a gradual taper. This is not absolutely required, as the body taper can also be built with the body dubbing, but why waste the opportunity.
8. Tie in ribbing wire
9. Run thread to bend, tie in tail material.
10. Apply dubbing and wrap body, leave (bare) thread hanging immediately behind the collar tie-down.
11. Spiral body hackle towards bend.
12. Trap body hackle tip with the ribbing material, and spiral rib towards eye, secure and snip/break off. Snap away tip of body hackle.
13. Push with tip of index finger or thumb into the eye of the hook to force the collar barbs to radiate perpendicular to the shank, move in with off-hand and pull the barbs around the body.
14. Make hard thread wraps in front of collar to fix the collar cone shape at the desired angle.
15. Finish off fly as per normal.

Note - if the collar material is wrapped, such as done in the Cloaked pattern, steps 3-5, 7, and 13, are modified accordingly.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Hans W

[letumgo]

Thanks Hans. Your step-by-step tying instructions are as clear as your photographs. I can picture the tying steps clearly in my head.