2nd attempt at a Spey
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The only thing that jumps out at me, and im guilty of this myself, is make the collar a little sparser. When u pull the barbs down under the feather they tend to clump up. On a spey, the hackle should look wispy. Hope that makes sense. Otherwise, keep at it, it looks good. Id still fish it.
Ben
Ben
I agree 100%. Needs to be opened up.
Thanks
Please explain and how do I prevent?
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Sparse hackle and more full wing. Think about the fact that feathers float, if you have more material on the bottom it will turn upside down. This really doesn't take much when you just have a mallard wing, I've had a fly with too large of JC nails make it spin. You are on the right track though... I'd try and go more sparse on hackle/collar and make your wing slips a bit thicker
Im so used to tying saltwater and using the hook to keel the fly. I know the the throat looks full. I only have 2 turns of blue earred pheasant with one side stripped. Then I actually clump tied 6 strands of rhea over it. What I may have to do is is maybe tie a double wing to offset the materials on bottom.
This was my 1st attempt at a Dee, Which probably would track better being that the wings are splayed and would be more forgiving over a Spey. Plus I have equal amounts of materials on top and bottom plus a wing. Would this prevent it from flipping? Thanks
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hey ok so here what i see. for spey flies body should start at hook point even a little ahead is ok. bring yours up ever more forward. spey have tight body usually wool on the old ones. the ribs should be 3-4 turns of each tinsels. most of them have a xterra fine tinsel counter wrapping the hackle to lock it in place. the hackles on old speys where a cock from the spey witch is gone bye bye 
but coque tail is the closets thing we have, strip on side and its tied by the roots. old one leave one turn of "fluff". most call for natural redish brown hackle or natural black. some speys call for heron. old speys dont have tails. LC is a classic yes but came after the old speys like the kings. the throat is almost always duck long. the wings are almost always bm or turkey. the old way of tying the bm wing is very hard ( the one describe in kelson) but the new way of tying them work well too. all the old speys i have seen have multiple slips of BM for the wings. small head are key to these flies. if i were you id stick or Spey flies first then move to dee flies, there quite similar but dee require more materials and are harder to tie. get the BM wing down well before using up your nice feathers. Remember the way the wing is tied in is more important than the way it looks dry. i mean a wing tied properly using crap feather will fish better then a wing set incorrectly using premo feathers. im no Pro at this or expert but you can msg me and ill try and help as much as i can with spey or dee flies. and if you choose to learn dee flies ill help there too
but coque tail is the closets thing we have, strip on side and its tied by the roots. old one leave one turn of "fluff". most call for natural redish brown hackle or natural black. some speys call for heron. old speys dont have tails. LC is a classic yes but came after the old speys like the kings. the throat is almost always duck long. the wings are almost always bm or turkey. the old way of tying the bm wing is very hard ( the one describe in kelson) but the new way of tying them work well too. all the old speys i have seen have multiple slips of BM for the wings. small head are key to these flies. if i were you id stick or Spey flies first then move to dee flies, there quite similar but dee require more materials and are harder to tie. get the BM wing down well before using up your nice feathers. Remember the way the wing is tied in is more important than the way it looks dry. i mean a wing tied properly using crap feather will fish better then a wing set incorrectly using premo feathers. im no Pro at this or expert but you can msg me and ill try and help as much as i can with spey or dee flies. and if you choose to learn dee flies ill help there tooThanks for all the info. I was just posting the dee for info about the fly flipping over. Obviously my spey is going to flip. I thought the hook would keel it but I don't think so. The dee was just to compare if that would flip also. I'm only interested in spey for now. What's the key to keep the spey from flipping besides keeping the bottom sparser? Should I use double slips of BM? This fly was the 2nd attempt the 1st attempt Russ gave me pointers of moving the first tie in etc. in that post. I wasn't really worried about the materials in this fly that's why I didn't use silk or any other materials because I wanted to get the proportions correct. So I didn't want to complicate it like I did on the 1st fly. I did mis count the tinsel wraps. I know I should have started the throat back where I made the 6th turn with tinsel. My big concern is the fly flipping over. Any secrets would be most appreciated.hey ok so here what i see. for spey flies body should start at hook point even a little ahead is ok. bring yours up ever more forward. spey have tight body usually wool on the old ones. the ribs should be 3-4 turns of each tinsels. most of them have a xterra fine tinsel counter wrapping the hackle to lock it in place. the hackles on old speys where a cock from the spey witch is gone bye bye
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what leads me to believe this spey will flip is that it looks like you swept the hackle to the underside binding it there to make room for the wing atop. Doubling up on BM slips to make the wing more prominent or mounting them in any other manner will not to do much to counter that either. Had you let the hackle collar as it lay and tented the wing over the collar might have made a difference.
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