2 Hatches Magazine • Fall 2009 Tying the Morris Boatman
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Fall 2009 Volume 2, No. 1 Practical & Artistic Fly Tying 27 Tying the Morris Invader or Opportunity Boatman In the Great Lakes region Gobies are on the menu and By Skip Morris should be in your fly box. By Greg Senyo & Patrick Robinson 27 Ritt’s Fighting Crayfish By Al Ritt Triggers, Tiers and Trout 27 The Esoxulator Emergence is a dynamic process in the life cycle By Steven C. Wascher stage of aquatic insects and requires equally dynamic imitations to fool wary trout. 27 Freehand Tying By Russ Forney By Al & Gretchen Beatty 27 Tying the Morris Tying The Dr Rockbottom Boatman Durable and deadly baitfish imitation with By Skip Morris several IFGA world records under it’s belt By Dr Rockwell Hammond 27 Tying the Morris Boatman A Fascination with Flies By Skip Morris The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. By Bob White Color, Spots and Stripes Advanced techniques for enhancing your deer hair bugs By Wayne Samson Modern intruders for west coast chrome A Life-like fly the steelhead want to kill. By Aaron Goodis Fall 2009 • Hatches Magazine Are you “PC?” No! No! We’re not talking about politically more than a year before he could make the investment in a correct! We’re talking about the method you use to attach better-quality vise, an old Thompson. He used this situation your vise to your tying table. Do you use a pedestal (P) or in the demonstration to talk with his audience about “mak- a C-clamp (C)? Quite frankly we use both depending on ing do with what you have” no matter what the situation the situation. If any of you have spent any time as a dem- may be. He survived the demonstration none the worse for onstration fly tier you already know that the tables in many his angst but always had a c-clamp AND a pedestal in his convention centers were not manufactured with a fly tying travel tying kit from that day forward. vise in mind, at least not one with a c-clamp as its anchor- Dealing with unexpected problems is something every ing mechanism. demonstration tier often must deal with. Another time Al Many years ago, Al learned about this problem the hard learned to tie standing up because the proper chairs to fit way. He showed up to demonstrate at a show and found the taller tables weren’t delivered until the show was well there was no way he could attach his vise to the table and into its first day. No, we’re not going to talk about sitting he didn’t have a pedestal base. He corrected the problem and standing at shows as our next topic. Instead we are when he got home that day however, at that time he was now refocusing you to our real topic, tying without the aid under-the-gun so to speak and ended up doing his dem- of a vise. onstration freehand – without a vise. Think about it for a minute. Like us, you’ve had to deal with He didn’t want the audience to see him in-a-panic so he unexpected problems when tying or fishing. For example, chose an easy-to-tie Woolly Bugger as his first fly. He was when was the last time you had to make emergency, stream- only part way into the pattern when he was struck by the side repairs to a fly that was coming apart? Or used your realization that he really did have a lot of freehand skills nippers to trim a dry fly into an emerger because that is learned over the years; they had just grown a bit rusty over what the fish seemed to be keying on? These are examples time due a lack of use. of freehand fly tying, simple though they may be; they were There was a time as a young boy when his first “kit” vise completed under adverse (but important) conditions dictated had broken (fallen apart). He tied streamers commercially for by the demands of the moment. Hatches Magazine • Fall 2009 So just for arguments sake, let’s turn to a more controlled environment, our fly tying areas. Do any of you take the fly out of the vise to apply head cement? (Figure 1) We certainly do. Why? It is much easier to tip the head of the fly up slightly to keep the glue from clogging the hook eye. There isn’t a vise made that will allow us to place the hook in as many varied positions as our hands and fingers can accommodate. Let’s tie a simple Wooly Bugger and show you what we mean. “A Woolly Bugger! Are you kidding?” is probably running through your mind right now but bear with us. Our purpose here is NOT to show you how to tie one of the simplest flies in our bag of tricks, rather we will use it to illustrate several maneuvers you can use so you can abandon your vise and go freehand with your tying. Also, keep a close eye on us because we plan on slipping a few good tying tips into this article that will work equally well with or without a vise. Let’s start by pinching down the hook barb, slipping on We like to position the hook in our left hand with the point a bead then placing non-lead wire on the shank. And no, up to more easily see what we are doing to the barb. Set our first step is NOT putting the hook in the vise like most the pliers aside and slip a bead on the hook. Bring a roll of of our tying step-by-step illustrations advise. First we have non-lead wire into your “tying circumference.” Notice we a minor housekeeping item to help clarify these instruc- didn’t call it your “tying area” but instead used a different tions. They are written for a right-handed tier. Just switch word, “circumference.” Freehand tying eliminates the need them around to fit your needs, however, you will soon see for a tying table and in fact we like to sit in an easy chair there is much less delineation between right and left when and tie with a small, short-sided box in our laps to keep you move into freehand tying; in fact, try to do as many our materials in captivity. functions as possible with your left (non-tying) hand. You’ll be surprised how it helps the process and how quickly it becomes a habit. Also be sure to read each sentence in the step-by-step instructions very carefully. This type of tying instruction does not bode well for the tier who tends to look at the pictures in an article without reviewing the text in detail. Wooly Bugger Materials Hook: Size 2 to 10, streamer style, pinched barb Bead head: Color and bead of choice (optional) Weight: Non-lead wire, wrapped, glued Thread: Color to match the body Grasp the loose end of the wire as it feeds off the spool Tail: Marabou (color of choice) in your right hand and place the tip of the lead between the Rib: Tying thread (or optional wire) left thumb and forefinger. Body: Chenille (color of choice) Hackle: Palmered feather over the body (color of choice) Tying Note: You will notice there are only a few steps to complete this fly but multiple illustrations shown to complete each step. Remember, our purpose is to show you freehand maneuvers so you can take those learned here and use them on more complicated patterns. Now lean back in your easy chair with a hook in your hand and let’s tie a fly. Step 1: Pick up a hook and use a pair of pliers to pinch down the barb. Grasp the hook AND the wire tip with the left hand and Fall 2009 • Hatches Magazine take as many wraps of wire as you want on the shank but be sure to leave room to tie off the fly behind the bead head. Once there is enough wire on the shank trim off the excess. Step 2: Lay the thread across the hook shank in front of the wire wraps, hold the thread in place with a left finger/ thumb pinch and anchor it there with several turns around the shank. Tighten both ends of the wire around the shank, apply a coat of head cement and place the hook in a rotating dryer to cure. Crisscross wrap several times over the wire turns, then wind the thread to the back end of the shank (we like to use our left hand for this part of the step) and then forward to the start of the wire application. Place a half-hitch and leave the thread there in preparation for the next step. Hatches Magazine • Fall 2009 Step 4: Pick up the hook with the left hand allowing the bobbin to temporarily swing in the breeze. Place the hook between the left thumb and second finger then grasp the marabou feather with the right hand and use a couple of the fingers from the left hand to stroke the fibers back in preparation to measure the tail. Which two fingers on the left hand you use is up to you. Some tiers may want to lay the hook down to complete this part of the step; however, we suggest you learn how to do it with the hook in your hand. Measure the tail to the length you prefer on your buggers and tie it to the hook directly behind the lead-wrap application using several turns of thread.