General Practioner

[KnotLikely]

I'm looking for a few tips when tying the General Practitioner. flyangler.ca has a great step by step article, but I've been having trouble with two parts.

 

1. Are the Golden Pheasant tippets lacquered to keep them from separating?

2. The Rigneck Pheasant rump feathers tend to want to slide to the side, especially the two used for the carapace. Any tips on keeping these straight?

 

Thanks for your help

[SilverDoctor]

I'm looking for a few tips when tying the General Practitioner. flyangler.ca has a great step by step article, but I've been having trouble with two parts.

 

1. Are the Golden Pheasant tippets lacquered to keep them from separating?

2. The Rigneck Pheasant rump feathers tend to want to slide to the side, especially the two used for the carapace. Any tips on keeping these straight?

 

Thanks for your help

 

The GP comes in a lot of different styles. Tied quite a few of these over the years for the Steelhead market in BC. Don't lacquer the tippets, it will spoil the look and action of this fly. When you use your Golden pheasant tippets be sure to cut a "V" out of the feather and tie down the stem under your thread wraps. There are two things to look for, first the thread and material base must be flat. if you have tied with an uneven base it will be impossible to have finer materials sit straight. Second is the tying thread pressure, too much will make the tippets flair. Keep the first back wraps with less pressure and then gradually give it more pressure along its length, also keep your wraps close together.

 

As for the rumps,be sure to choose rumps that don't have an inherent curve. If you have a curve you can wet the feather and lay it on newspaper to dry to straighten it. Again be sure there is nothing under your rump (he he) to push it up, that is you base material should be reasonable flat. The same applies to the thread pressure (see above). Another thing that will come into play is the quality of your feathers.

 

 

Hope this helps. It's always had to make a judgment call without seeing what you've done.

[KnotLikely]

Thanks for the reply SilverDoctor. I think I might be applying too much pressure too quickly on the initial wraps of the Golden Pheasant tippets, causing the fibers in each eye to flair and separate. I'll tie a few up tonight trying to take it easy on the initial wraps.

 

As for the rump feathers, I've actually been purposely selecting feathers that have a bit of a concave curve to them. It's not that they flair up in the back, they flair out to the side...almost like they're having an 80's 'Flock of Seagulls' flashback. I'll try a few of the straight ones, like you've suggested.

 

Thanks again for the tips, I'll tie up a few tonight, and maybe take a few pics of the steps I'm struggling with to give you a better idea as to where I'm going wrong.

[CapeBSalar]

Something you might also try is flattening the rachis (stems) of the feathers with non serrated needle nose pliers, Flattening will help with the roll, also if you want them to lie even flatter to the body, try putting an upward kink in the butt end of the feather, do a couple wraps, then pull the feather towards the front, tying tighter down this will most times bring the feather even closer to the body of the fly so it lies nice and snug.

[SilverDoctor]

By the way flattening the stems is great for display flies to get everything to lay right but for fishing flies fracturing the stem by flattening can weaken the stem. I was chatting with a tyer in BC last fall who stopped doing that after client complaints his flies lost feathers.

[KnotLikely]

After I got back from the Bow last night, I tied a few GP's, even though I should have been replenishing my stimulator supply. I did a lot better on the Golden Pheasant eyes. What I thought was a nice "V" looked more like a "U" on the first ties, so I spent a bit more time getting a good "V", then making sure I had a flat base, and progressing with the tension. As for the carapace, they're a little straighter, by watching my initial tension, and pulling the feather slightly forward like CapeBSalar suggested. I've done this in the past to keep tails from flaring, don't know why I never thought to do it here. I'm hoping to fish these flies on the Kitimat next year, so I probably won't flatten the stems. I'll get a few pics of the finished flies up soon.

 

Thanks guys!

[KnotLikely]

Here's the finished product. Looks like I need some tips on photographing flies.

[flyangler]

I'm squinting, but it looks nice!

[KnotLikely]

Sorry about that. I've received a few tips, so future posts should be of better quality.

[Mykiss]

Knotlikely,

 

Don't kill yourself trying to make the perfect "V" for GP's your going to use on the Kitty...You pave bottom there hard core and end up losing a few flies...Look up a half GP half the time to tie and a good looking prawn pattern..I run intruders out there and have some luck..orange and pink they really seem to key in on