Making daddy or hopper legs

[taffy1]

I've always used the hackle pliers, not had any difficulties. Each to their own & what suits them really.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

I've always used the hackle p;iers, not had any difficulties. Each to their own & what suits them really.

Do you never damage or kink the tip, gripping it in hackle pliers?

 

[taffy1]

Do you never damage or kink the tip, gripping it in hackle pliers?

No, funnily enough. I have some silicone tubing attached to the hackle plier jaws, user friendly in my case.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

No, funnily enough. I have some silicone tubing attached to the hackle plier jaws, user friendly in my case.

I'm not really seeing where it's necessary to grip the tip, in order to bring it through the loop?

 

[taffy1]

I hold the tip between finger & thumb, it's the butt end I draw through the loop, less damage to the pheasant fibre. I know this isn't adopted by many, it works for me & I don't think I'll try anything different soon.

 

[dgp]

And single-knotted? I would need single-knotted in chestnut for heather flies, and in claret and black for hoppers and raiders and the likes...

Col

Am interested to see that you go to the trouble of dying the legs in different colours. Does it really make much difference to catch rate ? I find the size and shape/silouette of the fly is the most important.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

I hold the tip between finger & thumb, it's the butt end I draw through the loop, less damage to the pheasant fibre. I know this isn't adopted by many, it works for me & I don't think I'll try anything different soon.

Ah - right - you are doing it backwards.

For sure - we'll all have developed the way that works for us and I don't think anyone will want to change. The idea of the video wasn't to persuade anyone to change. It was to show someone who asked how to do it.

Col

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Am interested to see that you go to the trouble of dying the legs in different colours. Does it really make much difference to catch rate ? I find the size and shape/silouette of the fly is the most important.

I guess the key one there would be the heather fly. It's a bit like asking if there is any difference between a Bibio, with its red centre section, and an all black palmer when there are heather flies on the water?

A heather fly just looks right with chestnut legs...

... even thought it's only the 'thighs' that are chestnut. I guess you could use a black Pantone pen on the tips.

That pattern is fantastically good when heather flies are on the go.


...and a black fly suits having black legs, rather than natural...

Though I like natural melanistic for this pattern...

Melanistic again...

... and a claret hopper looks much better to my eye with claret legs. It probably works just as well with natural, so some of it is no doubt some combination of anthropomorphising and confidence in what we are fishing.

You could ask the same question of any dry fly: is it worth using olive dubbings and blue dun hackles and all the myriad fancy shades and tones that we use? Wouldn't we be better to make them all black?

Here's a couple of hoppers shot from the fish's eye view, from under the water...

And a dead buzzer for comparison...

Up to each of us how we approach it. I'll certainly be continuing to use colours in my dry flies. As I see it, if it's worth using different colours for bodies and hackles, it's worth using different colours for legs.

Col

 

[taffy1]

Ah - right - you are doing it backwards.
Col

Yes, but it's sort of pulling "with the grain", so to speak.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Yes, but it's sort of pulling "with the grain", so to speak.

True. And can you position the knot very close to the tip that way?

Col

 

[taffy1]

True. And can you position the knot very close to the tip that way?

Col

I do seem to, there again it's the way I've always done them so it has become the norm for me.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Yes, but it's sort of pulling "with the grain", so to speak.

When I think about it, I am pulling 'with the grain' as well.

 

[dgp]

I guess the key one there would be the heather fly. It's a bit like asking if there is any difference between a Bibio, with its red centre section, and an all black palmer when there are heather flies on the water?

A heather fly just looks right with chestnut legs...

... even thought it's only the 'thighs' that are chestnut. I guess you could use a black Pantone pen on the tips.

That pattern is fantastically good when heather flies are on the go.


...and a black fly suits having black legs, rather than natural...

Though I like natural melanistic for this pattern...

Melanistic again...

... and a claret hopper looks much better to my eye with claret legs. It probably works just as well with natural, so some of it is no doubt some combination of anthropomorphising and confidence in what we are fishing.

You could ask the same question of any dry fly: is it worth using olive dubbings and blue dun hackles and all the myriad fancy shades and tones that we use? Wouldn't we be better to make them all black?

Here's a couple of hoppers shot from the fish's eye view, from under the water...

And a dead buzzer for comparison...

Up to each of us how we approach it. I'll certainly be continuing to use colours in my dry flies. As I see it, if it's worth using different colours for bodies and hackles, it's worth using different colours for legs.

Col

Col
Your superb photos from a fishes eye view convinces me !! Will pay more attention to leg colour now

 

[doobrysnatcher]

for what its worth i hold the thicker part of the stalk and make a loop then i put the thinner side across the loop and just like colin i insert a dubbing needle and pull the thin end out ,i usually make one knot as its too time consuming and some times i will use 2 stalks with the one knot but you get a different shilouhette to the one above when its far more practical to just buy knotted pt which usually has the 2 knots in each stalk

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

for what its worth i hold the thicker part of the stalk and make a loop then i put the thinner side across the loop and just like colin i insert a dubbing needle and pull the thin end out ,i usually make one knot as its too time consuming and some times i will use 2 stalks with the one knotView attachment 33069 but you get a different shilouhette to the one above when its far more practical to just buy knotted pt which usually has the 2 knots in each stalkView attachment 33070

I find that if you put a single knot in 2 fibres together, the first fish that takes the fly gets its teeth in between the 2 fibres and bursts one. So, now you have a single 'femur' supporting a double 'tibia/fibula'! Never liked it and I stopped using doubled fibres decades ago.

As for 1 knot vs 2... I use 1 for all my hoppers and beetles and terrestrials, in sizes 10 and smaller. I use 2 for dapping daddies, daddy-hogs and big f***-off terrestrials and the likes...

Col

 

[bobfly2]

I made a very small hook tool from a long sewing pin. Some are hard and brittle, some are quite easy to bend carefully with needle nose pliers. Drilled a tiny hole in a little dowel piece and put on a rubber sleeve. Works a treat for legs and other knottings.

 

[nickthomas]

Or you could use something else for legs...

 

[mr_eejit]

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Or you could use something else for legs...
View attachment 33082

I have done a few rubber-legged Chernobyl ant and Madam X type flies for the sea trout lochs in flat calms. (That's what that red and black muddler-headed daddy-hog upthread is for) Didn't bother to put knots in the rubber on those ones.

Col

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

They both look like more work than just pulling the end through with the tip of a needle - or bobfly2's wee hook?

Col