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Syd Glasso variation / Tenting wings......?

6K views 18 replies 12 participants last post by  Markus 
#1 ·
Love orange and purple as a color scheme. Can do the "knife" but struggle tenting the wings. Do you built up a base first?

Best,
Markus
 

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#4 ·
Very nice, what are you using for a hackle?
Dear Raspberry-Patch;

I used orange dyed, bleach burned, blue-eared pheasant.

I realize that the beginning of my post may have sounded arrogant, and I appologize for that. I really have been struggling with tenting the wings.

I have been using a 2x2 pair of wings, purple and pink. Somehow I struggle to place them low. Right now they always come up and separate.....

Best,
Markus
 
#7 ·
That fly on the picture looks pretty sweet :)

What Halcyon and riverborn have said is completelly true. When i tie in my tented wings, if you see them from behind, they are nearly at 45º, just like at camp tent roof, i always tie in one side at a time, keeping inmind that they will not be centered on the top of the shank but slightly higher than the side center. I hope this will be of help and not confuse you even more, sometimes i'm not sure if i explain myself clearly :roll:

I never burnt my BEP feathers, they really like nice that way! Do they become too brittle or they remain strong?
 
#11 ·
I cheat a little bit...

Once the wings are tied in, I put my bodkin under the hackle tips at the base of the wing, and apply pressure on the top of the wing with my thumb as I slide the bodken back to the tips of the hackles. With a little practice, you can get a nice curve to the hackles that hugs the body.

I thought everyone did this, but I haven't heard mention of it on this thread yet...
 
#12 ·
You can eliminate the dubbing hump by thinning the dubbing closest to the dubbing hook. (I use a budding loop) So, as you wrap your dubbing a short taper should form from the thickest part of your body towards the tie in point for your hackle and wing. I hope this is clear enough.
Mike
 
#14 ·
Markus,
I tie off the body, then tie off the ribs in front of the body, tie off the body hackle in front of the ribs, mount a 1 or 2 turn throat in front of the body hackle, then mount the wings on a thread base on the hook shank in front of the throat hackle, and finally wrap a head over the wing tie in point. The head wraps are the only thing that is not tied to the hook shank directly. On my favorite Partridge return eye hooks this means the body ends one wrap onto the return wire and the front of the head will end a short distance behind the rear of the eye.
 
#15 ·
Markus,

Bruce is correct, when hackle tip Glasso-style spey wings are tied in correctly, the stems are not tied in on top of the hook. the stems are tied in a little bit down on the side of the hook (how much varies by the hackle that is used), but the top of the feathers meet at the center line of the hook over the body. And as Bruce mentioned, this creates a little bit of empty space behind the tie-in spot of the wings before the top edges of each wing meet at the centerline over the body.

In addition to reducing the amount of dubbing at the front of the body (in effect, what you do is create a short taper of the dubbing beginning at the last ribbing turn to the front end of the body), pulling as much of the spey hackle and throat hackle down around and to the bottom of the hook as possible with your fingers after they are wrapped and tied down also helps keep the wing low.

I'd use a bit wider hackle than the ones you used for the wings. A bit wider hackle helps produce a much nicer looking tented hackle tip wing than the narrow hackles you used. My favorites for Glasso style wings are: Whiting saltwater/bass capes, Spencer saltwater/warmwater capes, Keogh Tyer's Grade Capes, Chinese capes, or any of the other genetic saltwater/bass capes on the market. I never use saddle hackle or Indian necks because they are too narrow to make a good looking tented hackle tip wing.
 
#16 ·
Next one.....

[Bruce is correct, when hackle tip Glasso-style spey wings are tied in correctly, the stems are not tied in on top of the hook. the stems are tied in a little bit down on the side of the hook (how much varies by the hackle that is used), but the top of the feathers meet at the center line of the hook over the body. And as Bruce mentioned, this creates a little bit of empty space behind the tie-in spot of the wings before the top edges of each wing meet at the centerline over the body.]

A little bit lower this time, however, still no downward arch. They are almost Dee-like v-ing outwards. Bringing the dubbing back and more sparse definitely helps. Being carefull when tieing everything off helps too. I double the stems over, which makes the head bigger, but I feel it makes the fly more durable when fishing. Next one I will try curving the wings over the bobbin.

Thoughts?
 

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#17 ·
Glasso style heron wings

Your fly has a great and interesting color combination going on. there are several things you could do differently...for starters try beginning your palmered hackle much further back on the body-at the second or third rib, this will spread out the bulk away from the front of the fly. Try to use hackle tips from a cape at flytyer suggests, so that you can match a left and right side wing set. When taken from a cape they will curve in towards the center from each side of the cape, thus you will have the natural downward curve in each wing toward the back of the hook. When setting your wings, gauge them to length-usually no longer than the body or the point of the hook- strip the stems up to the tie-in point, then proceed to insert the stems forward through the eye of the hook, either as a complete four feather set or as one side then the next, tieing down each side or the entire wing as you postion it. You're really just trying to move/separate the stems a small amount off the center of the underlying head, while keeping the upper portions of the wing in touch with each other, it helps to keep the top of the wings pinched together. Pull the wings slightly forward under your thread for their final positioning, add a few more wraps then clip/burn the stems off and do your final head wraps of thread. It can be a subtle art getting the wings right but much simpler with the right materials ie. good capes for your wing tips...Apologies for no photos but hope this makes sense and helps
Practice,practice,practice:Eyecrazy::Eyecrazy:
Good luck,
Tom A.
 
#18 ·
Markus,

Much improved, you're on the right track.

To correct the "dee wing" look: separate the stems of your left and right wings a little bit more and make sure the top edges of each wing are positioned over the centerline of the hook back a bit on the body while tenting each side, it should result in the proper tenting.

By-the-way, I never put the stems of Glasso style hackle tip spey wings through the hook's eye. I do however, not stip all the fibers off the stem up to the tie-in spot of the hackle tip. I always leave a few fibers (how many is a few you ask?: about 3) on each side of the hackle stem. These few fibers help support the hackle stem and positioning it in the proper tented orientation.

Also, 1) I only use 2 semi-tight turns of thread to hold in the far wing first, adjust it as needed through nudging it with your forefinger and thumb nails to achieve the proper middle of the body top wing edge. Also, you can pull the stems to shorten the wing if it is too long. 2) Once it is in proper position, put on a single tight wrap of thread to hold it there. 3) After the far wing is tied-in and nudged/pulled into its proper position, I tie-in the near wing in exactly the same way with only 2 semi-tight thread wraps. 4) Once it is position and both wings meet along the upper edge somewhere over the body with being tented, Add 2-3 tight wraps of thread to lock the wings in place.

When you trim off the butt ends of the hackle tip wings, hold on to the wings with your left hand as you cutt the butts off in order to keep the wing from moving and distorting its set. Then add a good drop of a medium viscosity head cement to the wing butts and whip finish over the wing butts. The whip finish will cover the wing butts and make for a nice, small head while making for a very secure fly since everything, the thread, the wings butts, and the hook are all glued together. If a single whip finish doesn't completely cover the wing butts, simply add another whip finish. Set the fly aside so so the head cement has a chance to dry before adding any more head cement to the head.

Your wings are a bit long, they should bee between the hook point and bend of the hook in length on spey flies. Most spey flies have the wings end at between the root of the barb and the point of the barb.
 
#19 ·
Next one: Syd Glasso meets Marc LeBlanc....

Dear all;

Thank you so much for all of your help!

Although the wings are not quite right I feel I learned a lot.

The wings were "stroked" with the bobbin. The black wing is a dry-fly cape, no good. Flytyer's recommendation using a few barbules to stabilize the wing really helps. Two-tone wings really bring out every mistake.

I wonder if Syd Glasso would have used a little crystal flash on top as well...

Best,
Markus
 

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