Hendrickson –
Compardun Quill Body
img_1855_8x10
HendrickOval_1855
Hook: 94840 (10, 12,
14)
Thread: olive
Body: mahogany (biot)
Wing: dun deer hair
Tail: med. dun microfibets or spey hackle
tailing
The Tail:
Many books recommend the wing
first, do the tail first. Then the wing doesn’t get in the way for tying in the
tail. But CAUTION, make sure you don’t cut the tails off when trimming the butt
of the wings later.
Tie a small ball of
mahogany(*1) dubbing directly over the barb. Keep it compact, you’re not
applying dubbing to the hook, you are just making a small ball of fur which
will be used as a fulcrum to spread the tails on the next step.
Select a few microfibets or
spey hackle for the tails. The tails should be 1 ½ times the length of the hook shank. Lay the
tailing directly on top of the hook shank and tie in about mid-way on the hook
shank. Be sure to keep the tails positioned on top of the shank as you wind the
thread toward the bend of the hook where you tied in the ball.
As the thread approaches the
‘ball of fur’ secure tightly right up to the ball. You know you’re doing it
right because the tails will splay outward as the thread pushes them into the
‘fulcrum’ created by the ball of fur.
You want the tails to splay
outward horizontally from the sides of the ball of fur. If needed add some
gentle pressures with your finger nail to position the tails properly. They
should not be sticking up into the air and they should be separated for proper
floatation on the water.
The last step for the tails
is to figure 8 wrap them to keep them separated. First with you fingers
separate the tails into two equal parts, as best you can. Do this with a gentle
touch or you may pull the tails out or disturb their alignment. You’re just
creating enough space to do the figure 8 wrap.
Start with the thread
directly in front or over the ball of fur. Take the thread over the hook and
between the tail separation, then down and back under-around the hook. Do 1 or
2 normal wraps over the shank directly in front of the tails to secure it. Then
take the thread under the near tail, up between the tails and over the top of
the hook shank. Continue the motion and complete 1 normal wrap around the shank
(again directly in front of the tails). Then one more wrap to lock it in.
You can do one more sequence
of this figure wrap to insure the tails stay separated when fishing the fly.
The tail is done. Just don’t cut it off during the next step!
The Wing
Select a bunch of deer hair,
dun colored, cut it off and clean the butts well. Comb it out with a small
comb, blow on it, flick it with your finger – just make sure it’s clean of fuzz
and fluff or it won’t stack well. Ok, now stack it with your hair stacker. It’s
tough to tell you in writing how much to use. Look at some finished compardun
to get an idea and after you tye a few dozen you’ll know exactly how much to
use – next time. If you’re using too much, you’ll have a bit of trouble tying
it in. If it isn’t spreading at all during the gentle initial tye-in, you’re
probably not using too little. ‘nough said !
If the wing material is way
long, trim some of the butt end off.
This will make it a bit easier to stack and you won’t have to disturb
the stacked wing but trimming it after you take it out of the stacker. Take the
deer hair wing in your fingers and sort-of compress/form it gently to prepare
to tye it in. Pick out any strays and maybe a small amount of hair if it looks
like you’ve got too much. It’s better to start initially with too much before
stacking and then get rid of some at this point. Then to try to add some more
if you don’t have enough.
The wing will be tyed in
between 7/24th’s the distance back from the hook eye. Huh? that’s
between a ¼ and 1/3 the distance from the eye of the hook. Position your thread
at this point. With the wing in your left (or non-tying hand) lay it directly
on top of the shank and hold in position. The tips are pointed over the eye
of the hook. The finished length of the
wing should be as high as the shank is long. You’ll need to leave a bit extra
in length, to allow for bending and standing the wing ‘up’. If you estimate the
amount of hair beyond the tye in point to be the proper length, it will get a
bit shorter when you stand it up, so go slightly longer with your estimate.
DO NOT remove your left hand
from holding the wing in place until the ”final – third cut” is made. Use the
pinch method (*2) to wrap 3 relatively loose wrap. Then pull up on the thread
to secure and tighten the wing. Pull
tight enough to hold the wing in position, but not so tight that you crush and collapse
the deer hair. When you feel the deer hair begin to crush, you’ve got enough
tension. Remember, the deer hair is hollow, and by not crushing it, you’ll
allow the hollow material to aid the floatation of the fly on the water.
These first three wraps are
important to get right. Next, take 8 to
10 tight wraps behind the tie in place to really secure the wing. Keep this
wraps directly behind the initial tye-in point. Don’t be going back toward the
bend of the hook. You’re still just securing the wing at it’s tye in position.
OK – it’s tight and you’re still holding the butts with your other hand. Let
the bobbin hang and get your scissors.
The next step is to trim the
butts with three cuts to prepare a taper for the body. Each of the three cuts,
obviously, should remove about 1/3 of the material. The first cut is directly
behind your last thread wrap, take the top 1/3 of the deer hair off. Then move
slightly back, and with the second cut take another 1/3rd of the
deer butts off. Then one more time, move slight back, do the third cut to
remove the remaining butt ends. These three cuts are like ‘steps’ going from
behind the wing toward the tail to form an underbody to form a tapered body.
CAUTION: This is where it’s easy to lose sight of your tailing material and cut
off the tails, be careful!!!
Now, bind down the ‘steps’
tightly and form a nice tapered body with thread from the tail to the rear of
the wings. Then lift the wings to an up-right position and with your thread
build a small cone with thread wraps in front of the wing to hold them
vertical. This support cone is just in front of the wing. It should not extend
from the base in front of the wing all the way to the eye. There should be some
bare hook shank between the front of the cone and the hook eye. We’ll add more
dubbed wraps later to finish and support the wing.
The Abdomen
The abdomen is a turkey biot
dyed a deep mahogany (dubbing can be used, but the whole idea of these
variation to the traditional recipe is to provide a more life like look to the
fly, so seek out the turkey biot). Select a biot from the ‘short’ side of the
feather and from the upper end of the quill. These provide a thinner and better
biot for the abdomen. Pull the biot of the quill. This will leave a little curl
where it separated from the quill. When tying in, the curl usually will be
facing up.
Move the thread back to, just
in front of the tail. Position the biot tip under the shank and tye in. The cup
side (hollow side) is down and the edge is to the rear of the hook. (that curl
is usually pointing up). Now wrap the biot toward the base of the wing. When
wrapping an ‘edge’ should pop-up first, followed by the flat side of the biot,
then an edge, then a flat side. It should look like this: |_|_|_ |_ If it
doesn’t, start over and flip the biot around, and wrap again. These wraps form
the abdomen only, so don’t wrap all the way to the base of the back of the
wing. Leave room for some dubbing to form the thorax behind the wing. OK –
wrapped far enough. Then tie it off.
The Thorax.
Now dub your thread with
mahogany dubbing. Dub enough to complete the entire fly. We’re going to dub the
thorax behind the wing, snugly in front of the wing, and the front of the fly.
It’s better to this all in one operation, but if you run out of dubbing, so be
it – add more and continue. Here goes.
In front of the biot wrap a
few turns of dubbing to form the rear of the abdomen. Do not go all the way to
the base of the rear of the wing. Leave a little space to push the wing back
into when applying dubbing in front of the wing, which will fully support the
wing. So, you’ve taken a few wraps
toward the rear of the wing and left some space.
Now, with the dubbed thread
wrap tightly and securely and jam it
into the base of the front of the wing, to push it upright and back into the
little space left behind the wing. Do a number of these wraps over the ‘thread
cone’ and ‘back into’ the base of the front of the wing to secure it in an
upright position. These ’jam’ wraps are needed to hold the wing in position
when fishing the fly.
If there’s still a bit of
space behind the wing, after building the front foundation. Wrap your thread
into this space and complete the abdomen behind the wing. Then continue
wrapping to the front and create a nice taper toward the eye, leaving space to
complete the head on some bare hook shank. Clean off the dubbing from the
thread. Wrap a nice head. Whip finish. And you’re almost done.
Primp the Wing
With your thumb, push the
wing back like you’re trying to lay it down on the rear of the body. This will
spread it out like a fan. Primp it a bit as needed. Then trim off any deer hair
fibers on the bottom to make sure the last fibers on each side of the wing are
in a horizontal plane with the hook shank / bottom of the body. Apply some head
cement and the fly is done.
The Cut Wing Quill
Body Hendrickson.
img_1861_8x10
HendrickOval_1861
Hook: 94840 (10, 12,
14)
Thread: olive
Body: mahogany (biot), under body mahogany dubbing
Wing: dun hen back
Hackle: medium dun and olive dun
Tail: med. dun microfibets or spey tailing
The Tail
Tie in the tail same as for
the Comparadun
The Wings
Select two narrow dun hen
back feathers. When shopping for hen back look for skins that have markings in
the feathers to simulate the veins in the real mayfly. The size should be the same height as the
hook shank. Position you thread as for tying in the comparadun wings, between ¼
and a 1/3 back of the eye. Face the wings convex sides together, that is the
‘cup’ sides should be facing out. This will help splay the wings when tied on
to the hook. You don’t want both wings smack together and standing up like a
sail on a sailboat. The wings should have a nice separation when tied on.
Use the pinch method and tie
on the wings. Separate them slightly then use as figure 8 wrap to secure them
and keep them separated. Snip off the butts and prepare for do the thorax by
moving the tread to the rear of the hook.
The Thorax
With thread wraps create a
slender tapered underbody. Don’t go all the way to the tie in point of the tail
though. Leave a small bare space on the hook in front of the tail for tying in
the biot. Dub some mahogany fur on your tread, very thin, and finish the taper
for the thorax, leaving your thread at the rear bare spot in front of the tail.
Select a biot and tie it in
as for the comparadun. And then wrap it forward just like for the comparadun.
Leave room behind the wing for the hackle.
The Hackle
Select two hackles. Always
use two hackles on flys from 16 (and maybe 18’s) up to 10’s (and sometimes
three on a ten and up). It’s better to use two hackles because the can be
intertwined (see following instructions) in a criss-cross pattern to provide
mechanical support, not just relying on the stiffness of the hackle itself. The
hackle color is medium dun and if you have a nice olive dun, use one of each.
Tye the near side hackle with
the tip pointing toward the back and the shiny (good) side ‘in’ (pointing away
from you). Tye the second hackle on the far side of the hook with the shiny
side out (pointing) away from you. It important to face the hackles as
described so that when wound around the hook one set of feather fibers tends to
point to the front of the fly and the other tends to point to the rear. In this
way the feathers interlock with each other to provide ‘mechanical’ strength to
support the fly.
With the feather tied in,
take the near side had wind a few wraps behind and then in front of the wing.
Then take the second and do the same. Be sure to leave plenty of bare hook in
front of the hackles. Why? Because since the wing is tied back on the hook, to
provide proper balance, dub a small amount of fur on your thread and take a
coupe wraps around the hook in front of the hackles. This finishes off a nice
looking abdomen as well as adds weight to the front of the fly for balance.
Create a small head, whip
finish, nip off the thread, add some head cement and the fly is almost completed.
The finishing touch.
Take the fly out of the vise
and trim a “ V “ into the under side of the hackles. Cut the hackles of the “ V
“ all the way to the body of the fly. This will allow the fly to ride lower in
the surface film and also simulates the outstretched legs of the mayfly. If the
water is real still, or the fish are finicky, or if spinners are out in early
evening – you can cut all the hackle off the bottom of the fly and let it ride
well into the surface film and/or give it a chance to represent a spinner.
Thoughts on the Hendrickson:
The common sizes are 10’s and
12’s, where the 12’s are the preferred size. But have some in 14’s too. The red quill is the male of the species. The
The cut wing pattern is
better on still and/or clear water. The wings twitching help attract the fish.
Watch the water it’s usually the fluttering mayflies that the trout take. Maybe
they go after them because they think they’re crippled and easier to take. All
Hendrickson wings are blue dun. Actually all early season bugs have dun wings.
Notes:
(*1) Use these proportions to
make the mahogany dubbing: 3 parts brown rabbit, ¼ olive, ¼ black, ¼ red
(*2) The pinch method is.
Hold the wing on top of the shank. Bring the thread up on the inside of your
thumb, over and down the other side between the hook and your index finger,
then under the hook and backup between your thumb and hook shank again. Then pull
up to tighten.
Fly design, tyes and instructions by Sam Vigorita.
Narrative by Michael Ebner
© Copyright 2005. This page can not be reproduced
without written permission from Sam Vigorita or Michael Ebner