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Green Highlander Dee

4K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  robmdq 
#1 · (Edited)
I just started back tying Dee style .... been way too long and my Dee box is a hurtin' unit :hihi:

Not totally satisfied with this one , but I think it will still hunt for me this spring .







Green Highlander Dee

Hook: Extra Long Bartleet
Tag: Silver tinsel and Golden Yellow silk
Tail: Golden Pheasant crest , veiled with Golden Pheasant tippets
Butt: Black ostrich
Body: Rear 1/2 : Green Highlander Seal mixed with UV Dub ; front 1/2 Yellow Seal mixed with UV Dub
Rib: Silver embossed tinsel
Hackle: Highlander green rooster over rear 1/2 : Yellow rooster over front 1/2 . Counter-ribbed with x-fine gold wire
Collar: Blue Eared Pheasant , over which is Gadwell
Wings: White goose shoulder
Cheeks: Jungle Cock nails









Mike
 
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#10 ·
Hey Peter !!!!

Maybe if you find the time leading up to your retirement , maybe you could come by for a swing or three :roll: I could have a couple Dee's with your name on them .... I have a Dunt drying in the vise as I type this :)










Mike
 
#9 ·
Lovely sleek tie. Gotta love those colours ;)

Mike
 
#15 ·
You are more than welcome too Mike , never fished with Floyd yet .... I guess Randy could come too :hihi: Just kidding Randy ;)


having trouble my A-S-S:razz:
Wow man,,, that looks like a friggen missile,,, and that wing:smokin::smokin:
Awesome tie bro,, don't stop at one!!!
I was , the first one will be swimming in rock infested waters . This second one is a little better .... should of held off and posted the third one :hihi: I will make sure that I have a few on hand for the Margaree . I could tie this on at Libbus and swing it right through passed the New Dollar Pool and feel that I turned a couple salar's heads anyways .

Yup, got that right. I'll have to get up there. Any good spring fishing in open water before trout opener? April one is "R" day. After that, it's fish, fish, fish.
As long as it's an easy snow melt , we'll be good . If the warm comes fast , we're toast . We have mountains of snow this year .

April Fool's Day , eh ?? I'll have to remember that one :hihi:











Mike
 
#18 ·
Mike,

Since you asked me via private message for my thoughts on this dee of yours and how to improve it, here they are.

First off, the wing is excellent in width, set, and length. Head is also very good. Throat is likewise excellent.

These are the things I'd change and why:

1) Tip ought to start no further forward that the root of the barb. It should also be of fine or extra fine oval or round (not wire) tinsel to prevent the floss tag from migrating down the hook bend. The tip on flies with floss tags look best if they are not more than 5 turns of the fine oval or round tinsel on this size hook. Dee flies have tips and tags located in the normal classic featherwing position, it is spey flies that have them positioned in front of the hook point.

2) Tag should end at the hook point. If it ends forward of the hook point it adversely effects to position of the tail and length of the body. Also, splitting the floss in half and only using a single half of the split floss is the preferred way to tie a floss tag because it provides for a finer, smoother tag due to the curve of the hook bend.

3) Tail is a bit too short. Tails on dee flies go a small amount past the hook bend. When they don't, the fly looks unballanced and doesn't swim as nicely either.

4) GP tippet tail veiling (also known as tail topping or tail overlay) is too long. Tail veilings ought to be 1/2 tail length or they overpower the tail.

5) Ostrich butt is not wide enough. It ought to be 5-6 turns of ostrich to provide the proper width from back to front. As you tied it, it doesn't ballance to body and looks like you didn't really want to have it included. Making it the little wider I suggested will have it look like it is a part of the body and that it was meant to be there.

6) Rear body section is too long and front section too short. This causes the rear body to overwhelm the front yellow section and causes it to almost disappear. To fix this, make the rear body not more than 40% of the body's length. This leaves the front section to cover the front 60% of the body's length.

7) Use 5 turns of ribbing on each body section. This is the traditional way they were tied. Simply use one size smaller oval tinsel to do this.

8) Start the green hackle at the 2nd turn of the ribbing tinsel. Starting it at the 1st turn of ribbing tinsel unballances the fly and makes the rear of the fly look "busy" instead of clean. To do this:

a) tie in the ribbing tinsel tight to the butt, split you tying thread (or floss - Me, I'd tie the fly up to the throat with chartreuse yellow thread and split it to form the dubbing loop for both the green and yellow body portions),

b) insert the dubbing into the split thread (or floss),

c) spin the bobbin to close up the dubbing loop and spin the dubbing tight (don't forget to tease/pick the dubbing out so there is a very noticeable halo around the body before wrapping the ribbing and hackle. Dee flies were noted by the masters of old for their "fuzzy" bodies produced by having a well picked out (not thick, just picked out) body,

d) start wrapping the body and at the place where the 2nd turn of ribbing would cross the bottom of the body.

e) tie in the hackle by the tip with the split thread dubbing loop (yes, it will hold the hackle in place without it slipping when fished),

f) wrap the hackle after the ribbing it wrapped forward and make a single additional wrap of hackle at the end of the green body section. This turn of hackle eliminates any bare or dead spots of hackle at the body segment transition point.

9) Repeat #8 with the ribbing, yellow hackle, and dubbing with one change: Start the yellow hackle with the 1st turn of ribbing in order to prevent a loss of continuity from rear to front body. Don't forget to take 2 or 3 extra turns of yellow hackle at the front of the body. This adds a little fullness, but most importantly, it adds a bit more color to the front of the body.

(TIP^ take a single wrap of thread over the hackle as soon as you reach
the front of the body to hold it in place and keep it from slipping
before you make the additional 2-3 wraps of yellow hackle)

10) Pull the hackle of both body segments down so most of the barbs are on the sides an bottom of the fly. This keeps them from interfering with the wings.

11) Blue eared pheasant (your spey hackle) is a bit too short in barb length. It would look a lot better if it went past the hook point.

12) Jungle cock sides are too short. They look best if between 1/3rd and 1/2 body length.

13) Have the side lie in a straight line from head to hook point. This provides for a very sleek, streamlined look and ballances the fly best.

Eventhough this looks like an extensive list of things, it is really a list of small changes and adjustments that would make a huge difference in how you dee flies look.
 
#20 ·
Russ , I cannot thank-you enough my friend :)

These tying tips and your suggestions are just fantastic !!! This is what I was hoping for !!!

Thank-you for making the time in your busy schedule to help me out .... it is very much appreciated :)











Mike
 
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