Then I look at my own flies. They are...well...just awesome. Not for the looks of them but for all that anticipation built into them. I've just tied a couple of Bradshaws' Fancys - a few of them with a sandy dun hen hackle tied through the thorax and a few with that same hackle one turn at the shoulder. On the last one I took even more liberties. I tied that same hackle just in front of the red tag at the butt, then wound the peacock up to the shoulder where I tied in a light, mottled Charlie Collins hen hackle - just behind that front tag. One turn of each. When tying off at the head, that front tag is propped up as a very visible post. Purple thread. This fly will kill!!!
That peacock is of the best quality I have ever seen. If you had told me ten years ago that I would be buying fly tying material from Romania...
(Lucian Vasies at http://flytying.ro/ is selling quality materials at an affordable price. His cdc is also a joy to use.)
(Not my fly - borrowed from this site http://picasaweb.google.com/olber29/Bra ... 9182985634
I tie it off right behind the eye - the purple head in front of the red tag.
dd
