How Leisenring tied the Tups

[Soft-hackle]

Very simple steps as Leisenring would have tied the Tups, and perhaps other similar flies.


The thread has been cast on, and the hackle prepared and tied to the hook shank.



The thread is wrapped to the half way point on the shank. This space will accommodate the Thorax.



The silk abdomen thread is tied to the shank with the tying thread. The tying thread is left where it is. The silk is then wrapped toward the bend and back towards the eye, over the first layer, in touching wraps. This forms an abdomen of silk thread with no tying thread beneath.



The excess is trimmed off.



The dubbing brush to form the thorax is tied on, and the tying thread is wrapped down the shank towards the eye, leaving room to wrap the hackle.



The thorax is wrapped, excess trimmed. Now to complete the fly, the hackle can be wrapped, tied off, trimmed. The head can be formed and the fly is complete.

The result is a fly with a silk abdomen with only the shank beneath the silk. One could rib the abdomen using the silk abdomen thread instead of completely recovering the first layer that was put down when it was wrapped towards the bend. This would leave only one layer of base silk on the shank with an over rib of the same thread. The idea was that the layer of only silk would result in a more translucent abdomen.

Mark

[Soft-hackle]

One thing that should be noted. Leisenring was in correspondence with Skues. He probably learned about the Tups from Skues, and I would say that there is a good possibility that the tying procedure described by Leisenring might have easily come from Skues. I think this gives us great insight into how soft-hackles were tied.

Mark

[tie2fish]

Very helpful illustration of the technique, Mark. Thank you for posting this. As you have suggested, this same process might be used for many other combinations of materials.

[GlassJet]

Hi Mark,
That is a great post, very clear.
Re: Skues, I doubt Skues would have used the dubbing brush? Would he? I'd not seen this method until I saw mention of Leisenring...

And regarding tying in the hackle first, I might use that method if it stayed obediently out of the way as it does in those diagrams! With me though, the hackle always seems to twist around and get caught up in the process of building the body, so I tend to tie it on last.

Andrew

[Soft-hackle]

Hi,
Andrew, I agree to some extent regarding the dubbing brush. I'm not positive Leisenring developed the dubbing brush technique himself. I will say that he popularized the method. The usage of the silk, however might have definitely been a Skues influence. Having the silk on the bare hook with no tying thread definitely has it's advantages. Of course, many earlier patterns could be tied using this method without the thorax, but just an all silk body. The tying thread would simply be left up closer to the hackle where the stem meets the hook, the body silk can then be tied on, wrapped down the shank and back, tied off and trimmed. The fly could then be completed.

There's nothing wrong with tying the hackle on last, then winding it, however, my problem is that as I'm wrapping, the stem often slips out from under the wraps when I do this. Not always, but sometime. With the hackle facing me, I strip the hackle fibers off a bit higher on the right side than on the left. In fact, on heavier hackle, almost the entire side can be removed. This stripped side is tied down to the hook shank and holds the hackle on the fly very well and also seems to seat it properly on the shank.

Mark

[Soft-hackle]

As an interesting side note, Andrew's post made me think of a rather critical e-mail I received from an annoyed tier asking why I did not list the materials in dressings for flies I posted in the order they were tied on the hook shank. Most of my dressing recipes list hook, thread, hackle, tail if any, ribbing if any, abdomen-body, thorax if any. I e-mailed back and as politely and calmly as I could, explained to the irate tier, that my materials WERE listed in the order I tied them to the hook. I explained very nicely that not every tier ties a wingless wet the exact same way, then wrote out my tying procedure for him to contemplate.

Mark

[GlassJet]

Hi Mark,
I have tried the tying hackle on first a few times, figuring that if that is how Skues did things, then it must be right. And a lot of the tyers whose work I most admire seem to tie on the hackle first as well.

But, It just doesn't feel as comfortable to me though. More importantly, I fish all my flies, and nowadays many have quite long lives before I finally liberate them into the top of a tree or a bush, and i can honestly say that over the last two seasons, I can only remember one - maybe two - unwinding while fishing. The second was dubious - had some rough treatment at the end of some forceps while unhooking, so it didn't just unwind, it was severely provoked! So really, only one unwound due to it being poorly secured on the hook in all that time - and that is a lot of fishing.

I'm also selling a few now as well, and I haven't had any complaints about disintegrating flies - yet!

There, I've said it now. I'm not afraid to admit it - I tie on the hackle last. There should be a support group or something...

Andrew.

[Soft-hackle]

What works for YOU, is the best way.

Mark

[letumgo]

Outstanding post, Mark! The illustrations are terrific. Definitely looks like an effective way of tying. Thank you for taking the time to pull this together. I find it very helpful.

[Jerry G]

Yes, thanks Mark for the informative illustrations. In this thread Andrew has mentioned durability of his flies. Now realizing the soft hackle feather itself can be a bit on the fragile side (reading loss by use of forceps in fly removal) do either you Mark or Andrew in completing the fly wrap your thread back through the hackle so as to reinforce the hackle stem?

Regards, Jerry