[Jason]

It's been a while since I posted any of my flies, and have been mostly lurking along the sidelines. After too long of not having much time to really sit down and tie consistently, and mostly tying trout stuff and small summer steelie offering, it's good to finally have some time to work on some of the harder stuff. The married wings still kick my butt, though they are gradually getting easier, now I'm struggling with putting some of the other pieces into a built wing. The BM roof, and the topping in particular have been troublesome to say the least.

Here's one that had to be reworked a few times; first after a complete train wreck of a wing set which took out my original underwing, then a failed attempt at mounting the wing without an underwing. Had a few more problems along the way, though overall I am pretty please with the total outcome and plan to fish this thing hard. Any tips or critique are most welcome, especially tips
JB

 

[GR8LAKES FLYER]

You knocked this one out of the park !!
Valiant efforts with great rewards ... really nice tying


Mike

 

[Jason]

Thanks Mike!
You got that right: lots of effort, but so very rewarding when things start to come together well.
Cheers,
JB

 

[Jabrowning24]

My advice would be throw the Amherst out the window! Other than that I have no room for advice but I have been struggling with the same areas, there is a good and eye opening tutorial for mounting a BM roof over on the classicflytying site... Oh and try shaping the topping so it doesn't push down the wing so far but overall you're doing great with it
-josh

 

[kova1385]

this one really caught my eye, i like it! seriously awesome tying. my only suggestions would be a shorter topping and a normal hook, browse through classicflytying.com to get an idea of proper hook proportions and shapes for these styles of flies

 

[flytyer]

This is really good tying. I also would make the topping a wee bit shorter. I'd also make the tip about 3 or 4 tinsel turns longer. You've done a terrific job of using proportions that fit this style of hook. Granted, it is easier to get proportions right on a standard, limerick bend, straight shank salmon iron, but that doesn't mean you have to tie on one. Keep in mind that one of the more popular salmon irons for tying married wings today is the Partridge CS10/03, which has a humped shank due to it being a Bartleet style hook.

There is nothing wrong with the topping pushing the wing down a bit, in fact, that is normal unless one purposely ties it so the topping has a gap between it and the wing (a look I personally don't like).

 

[Jason]

Thanks for the encouraging words, and the helpful suggestions guys. The hook is an 3/0 AJ, never really tied much in the way of salmon or steelhead flies on any of those "normal hooks" mentioned. TBH, I've kind of shied away from changing hook style mostly due to not wanting too many variables to work with just yet. I'm kind of familiar with the proportions on the AJ hooks, and feel like I'm getting closer to a level of confidence about where to put stuff on them. Probably look into some other hooks soon though as I'm nearly out of the larger sized AJ's

Josh, I'm curious why you say to pitch the LA? Oh and thanks for the suggestion to check out the other site, I learned a few things immediately.

The wing was actually set a little low to start with, the only part that the topping is really pushing on is the very tip of the wing. I kinda thought that it was doing so in part because the tip of the wing wasn't quite right. The biggest "problem" on the fly for me was the roof, which managed to twist the shoulders a bit. I went back and forth for a while trying to get the shoulders back in line and clean up the main wing a bit... only to have the roof start to come apart. Fixing the roof almost always ended up catching some of the topping... trying to get the topping to cascade a bit more ended up catching on the BM roof... :Eyecrazy: Finally got it to something I could live with, though I think that it did look better at various times before I'd fiddle to try and get it "perfect". Of course by then the JC on the near side had splayed out off the wing a lot more than I wanted...
Cheers,
JB

 

[Alpine4x4]

Spectacular fly.

 

[whiskeyjin]

JB.......looking great to me this one !!
Great start,keep it up JB !!




Jin

 

[Jabrowning24]

I was just joking about the LA, it looks great and you did awesome with it much I (and many others) don't like working with it in general, it's stiff and doesn't usually marry well (exceptions being superb quality)... All that said it is a beautiful feather and if you can take it as well as you did run with it!

I get what your saying about the wing/topping, I guess I just assumed you did what I do in making a nicely shaped humped wing and smashing it down with a roof and toppings.

 

[kova1385]

for aj hooks i suggest starting the tag at the point rather than the barb (hard to tell from pic if you did or not), like jin does for his flies. Looks good, shortens the body abit, and you still get to use a good fishable hook. I suggest finding some gaelic supeme harrison barleet in 3/0 for your next purchase. Great size, good look, easy to tie on etc. By "normal" hooks i mean a straight shank, and bend starts at point. Scroll through some old books like these and it will help you alot. https://archive.org/details/salmonflyhowtodr00kelsrich

 

[808steelheader]

that is one stunning fly. I don't see myself being able to tie anything like that anytime soon!