Married wing wet - Brookie Fin

[Dwclapp]

Here is my first ever married wing fly. I just started trying traditional winged wets a few weeks ago and am still struggling with getting the wings to crush down properly at tie in (as seen here). Even so, I am impatient so I had to try a married wing.

Critique of this from my perspective:

• Wing way to long
  Beard too long
  Head is a monstrosity

Even with all the flaws, I am proud of this ugly thing as it is my first time getting feather fibers to stick together in an organized manner to make one of those colorful wings I have loved since I first saw them.

Body- Flat silver tinsel
Rib - Fine oval tinsel
Wing - Goose shoulder orange topped with two fibers each of red, black, and white
Beard - White hen hackle
Hook - Size 10 wet fly

[DUBBN]

I have been dabbling in some crude winged wets lately, but nothing that extravagant. Your skill is very impressive.

[redietz]

I wouldn't say even that the beard is too long.

A couple of thing that might help with the head:

This might seem counter-intuitive, but build it up from the front to back. When you chop off the butt sections of the wings, there's a tendency to want to smash those butts down with a lot of thread. You build up a bunch of thread over the butts, and just make the "cliff" effect worse. Instead, start building in front of where the butts stop and build the thread up to the level of the butts. Then cover them and work back to the wing.

The other thing is: flatten your thread before and during making the head. You'll use a lot less thread, and it will come out smoother.. It helps here to use thread that is amenable to being flattened (like Danville's Flat Waxed) instead of single stranded like Monochord. Flattening thread helps out in other places in tying winged wet, too, like making a smooth underbody for floss, and not building up too much bulk when tying in a tail and tag.

Do you tie left-handed?

[zen leecher]

It does have a nice body.

I found duck quill easier to get a nice looking wing than goose quill. Goose shoulder was the worst for me.

[Dwclapp]

I wouldn't say even that the beard is too long.

A couple of thing that might help with the head:

This might seem counter-intuitive, but build it up from the front to back. When you chop off the butt sections of the wings, there's a tendency to want to smash those butts down with a lot of thread. You build up a bunch of thread over the butts, and just make the "cliff" effect worse. Instead, start building in front of where the butts stop and build the thread up to the level of the butts. Then cover them and work back to the wing.

The other thing is: flatten your thread before and during making the head. You'll use a lot less thread, and it will come out smoother.. It helps here to use thread that is amenable to being flattened (like Danville's Flat Waxed) instead of single stranded like Monochord. Flattening thread helps out in other places in tying winged wet, too, like making a smooth underbody for floss, and not building up too much bulk when tying in a tail and tag.

Do you tie left-handed?

Bob,
Thanks for the tips on building up the head. I currently use Veevus 12/0 but will give it a shot with UTC which seems to flatten much better for me.

Nope dont tie left handed. In the photo, I am using an extra detached jaw set for my NorVise to hold the fly.

Darin

[zen leecher]

The original recipe for these flies was apparently a #6. From what I read this was the size of choice in the old gut leader era. I've tried the married wings on #12's thru #4 and found #8's and #6's easier to tie than on the smaller hooks.

Don Bastian made two DVD's on quill wing wet flies and some of the traditional married wing patterns are in there.

I'm no expert but my married wing flies look way better now than the first one I tied. I had a guy send me a clip style fly box of quill winged wets and I'm still working on getting up to his level of tying.

Good luck with your efforts. I've considered the metal ribbing over a mylar body a chore in ensuring the body doesn't have any bumps and the ribbing is spaced equally. Yours looks quite nice. Did you use the rotating application of the Norvise to help with that?

[Dwclapp]

The original recipe for these flies was apparently a #6. From what I read this was the size of choice in the old gut leader era. I've tried the married wings on #12's thru #4 and found #8's and #6's easier to tie than on the smaller hooks.
...

Good luck with your efforts. I've considered the metal ribbing over a mylar body a chore in ensuring the body doesn't have any bumps and the ribbing is spaced equally. Yours looks quite nice. Did you use the rotating application of the Norvise to help with that?

Yeah, I am redoing my efforts on some size 6 or 8 wet hooks. The 10 is just too small for me to learn on.

I did use the rotation feature to do both the mylar and the oval tinsel rib. Just hold at a steady angle and spin. Nice even wraps.

Darin

[DUBBN]

Good post Joe.