[Mumbles]

Sat down after packing for tomorrow's trip to a lake.

Silver flat holographic tinsel butt, green peacock herl, green floss, green peacock herl, rabbit/antron blended dubbing, flat tinsel rib, olive mallard and black schlappen. Today I followed some of the tips I got by stripping off half of the hackle, amazing how much easier it is to tie, and less seems to be much more here. Maybe tomorrow I'll tie a few more.

 

[Whit]

That less is more lesson is a tough one to learn. I just spent some time tying up my first dozen soft hackles for a swap. They really do look nice when you get the proportions right.

 

[Ben Waldschmidt]

Holy crap! Ed, you are on one crazy mission to get your spey tying skills down. Keep it up!

 

[Borderfly]

Mumbles,

Less is more, your getting the idea now. Those will fish well.

Borderfly

 

[Tom House]

Not only will they move well but they will sink faster due to the sparse tye.

Great work

TC

 

[3356]

Mumbles,

Hopefully you will take a few tip to improve your spey fly tying in the spirit in which I offer them.

These are nice sparse flies, but they are not spey flies. A spey fly needs to have a wing on it that is not longer than the hook bend that sits low to the body and is tent-shaped. It doesn't matter if the wing is made of bronze mallard, hackle tips like Glasso's, or GP breast or rump feathers. These can be called Pseudo Speys though.

1) There is too much ribbing for a spey fly. The old masters of spey flies (the new ones too) used only 5 turns of tinsel ribbing from the tip or butt to the front of the body.

2) I'm not sure from your photos if you palmered the spey feather (the schlappen, which is only one of the feathers that can be used as a spey feather or hackle on a spey fly) up the front 1/2 of the body, or just tied it in and wrapped it as a collar at the front of the body. It looks like it is only wrapped as a collar in front of the body, but as I said, it is hard to tell. Anyway, spey hackle is wrapped at least on the front 1/2 of the body (like Glasso did with his spey flies) and many of the old spey flies had the spey hackle start at the rear of the body and follow each wrap of tinsel ribbing to the front.

Doing these things will make a big difference in how your pseudo speys (and hopefully once you add a wing) spey flies look. Granted, it will take a bit more time to tie them this way, but the result is well worth it.

 

[Mumbles]

Thanks FT, I've got no knowledge of the spey fly, the history or those who have tied them. I am merely seeing patterns and trying to replicate them with materials I have on hand. I'll keep working on them as time at the vise permits. Thanks for the input, perhaps one of the things I lack is some form of formal text with the patterns and likely the info you and others have shared.

 

[Skilly]

I don't know about your Library up there but the library system here in Southwest Wa. has a good selection of books on Spey flies and how to tied them. I didnt' check the video selection but you might give them a try. If they don't have them they may be able to get an inter library loan. Oh they also have several videos on Spey casting.

Hope this might help

Skilly

 

[Preston]

The Spey fly is a particular style of salmon fly popularized in Scotland's Spey River Valley in the nineteenth century. As mentioned above, these flies typically featured a slender, feather wing mounted low over the hook and (most particularly) a palmered hackle, originally Speycock's hackle and often later of long and flowing heron hackle. Heron is, of course, protected now and substitutes include blue-eared pheasant, ringneck pheasant rump, schlappen and others.

One of the best and most complete books on Spey flies is John Shewey's Spey and Dee Flies.

 

[slippery_whippet]

The Spey fly is a particular style of salmon fly popularized in Scotland's Spey River Valley in the nineteenth century. As mentioned above, these flies typically featured a slender, feather wing mounted low over the hook and (most particularly) a palmered hackle, originally Speycock's hackle and often later of long and flowing heron hackle. Heron is, of course, protected now and substitutes include blue-eared pheasant, ringneck pheasant rump, schlappen and others.

One of the best and most complete books on Spey flies is John Shewey's Spey and Dee Flies.

In my humble opinion Shewey's Spey and Dee Book is great on history and pretty pictures but poor (or maybe inconsistent is a better description) on actual instructions for beginners.

Here is a link to some Spey fly pattern tutorials that I have found especially helpful (Thanks Bruce!) :thumb:

http://www.beaucatcher.com/Black_Heron_Tutorial.html

my 2 cents,

--SW

 

[Mumbles]

SlipperyWhippet, I just got that link from Bruce and have a few plans for tying some of those flies. I think that will serve me well to start my quest. Thank you. I do have a book that has a couple of chapters on spey flies, I never really got into that section before but will reaquaint myself with it and see what magic happens. I'm more interested in patterns that will fish well rather than those that are strictly adherent to any historical or traditional rules, but I don't wish to make a mockery of the flies that I attempt to copy. Thank you.

 

[Matthew Gulbranson]

Ed,
That looks like a killer low water summer fly. It' been great seeing your experiments, and learning more about spey flies in the process. I would fish any of the flies you've been crankin' out!!

 

[3356]

Mumbles,

The book with the best info on how to tie spey and dee flies in my opinion is Bob Ververka's. And when you combine Shewey's and Ververka's books, you have the most complete source I know of on patterns and tying of spey and dee flies.

 

[speyflyfisher]

Mumbles
The historic spey patterns would not be there if they didn't fish well. Much
about their construction is designed so they fish well and it just so happens that they
look good because of it. Here is a link to some spey's by Dave McNeese with lots of pictures.

http://www.feathersmc.com/articles/show/26

Speyflyfisher

 

[Mumbles]

Matthew, I'll count on you fishing one or two of them...you know I can't catch fish without explosives...but you can. FT and Speyfisher, thank you both. The only fly tying guide with spey flies addressed is one by G. Randolph Erskine. He dedicates three chapters and I've only begun to read it as before now I was trying to learn my humble basic skills. These three chapters cover modern speys, classic speys and dee strip wing speys. I will be looking up your suggested sites for printing and use as well as adding these books to my Christmas wish list. Who knows? Thank you again.

 

[Jergens]

Mumbles,

go to the fly tying section of speypages and search for marty's posts, he has done a tone of tutorials on tying spey flies that helped me out a ton. i would also look into buying his DVD.

 

[Mumbles]

Thanks Joe, will do. Ed

 

[Steve Saville]

The Spey fly is a particular style of salmon fly popularized in Scotland's Spey River Valley in the nineteenth century. As mentioned above, these flies typically featured a slender, feather wing mounted low over the hook and (most particularly) a palmered hackle, originally Speycock's hackle and often later of long and flowing heron hackle. Heron is, of course, protected now and substitutes include blue-eared pheasant, ringneck pheasant rump, schlappen and others.

One of the best and most complete books on Spey flies is John Shewey's Spey and Dee Flies.

Great book! My daughter bought it for me last year but I haven't really attempted any of the patterns yet. You have to be a skillful tyer and I am far from that. One day I will get to it.