Horsetail Quill Bodies

[William Anderson]

Thanks, Ray. I will likely play around with these again sometime, but the next chance I get I'll be spending my time tying something flymphy (for the swap), become obsessed and spend months blending fur dubbings and plucking skins. I was really careful with the griffiths 14/0 thread to lay a flat base. The hairs went together nicely with each turn, it was with the subsequent turns that previous turns would move a bit, which bothered me enough to notice and not enough to rewrap or take any measures to stop them.

I'm still curious about the bouyancy question. Has anyone fished these?

I like the hairs a lot. The tone and the translucency are very interesting. I tried the hairs as a rib over pheasant too, but the light, milky quality of the hairs I have didn't look right at all. Would have been better over llama, and on a larger fly. The diameter of these is too much for a rib imho.

[Old Hat]

William, very well done and I can see your attention to detail in each and every fly and in you discussion. I too like the looks of the second one. Is the underbody waxed? A good waxing of the thread and the hair may not slide around as much and may even secure it as it cures.

[William Anderson]

Thanks, Carl. I bet waxing the thread would make a difference as well. I've got several options the next chance I get to try these. I'll give that a try first and knowing that I want closer wraps I'll find a way to push the wraps together as I go, aside from tention on the hair itself, like pushing them down with something toward the tail with each wrap. But that's going to make a 3 minute tie into a 4 minute tie, and I don't know if I can live with that. If I ever tie anything for someone else 4 minutes doesn't sound so bad.

w

[daringduffer]

I prefer no2. Even in art, imperfection is a good thing. Even more so when fishing.

What if you slow down and let go of control? Would be interesting to see them flies then. (teasing)

Sparse might be "better" than neat...

(I need some excuses for my own results...well, no - not really. I learnt to live with my limitations and enjoy those more accomplished).

dd