What A Great Idea

[hydropsyche]

Has anyone ever heard of doing this to strengthen herl (besides you, Don. Did you come up with that yourself?)?

 

CFF

 

Read the part about how Don uses a loop with the herl and twists both with hackle pliers.

 

When I first read this, I though "that can't be much different then the old trick of wrapping your thread around the 3 herls".

 

Well, Don just sent me some macramé and I thought I'd tie up some CFF's as per his instruction. When I started twisting the herl with the loop, I quickly saw the difference. The thread grips and tightens the herl shafts so tightly, you can't tell the "rope" is actually made up of three herls. It looks like one rope. I don't know for sure if it will be any stronger but it sure looks like it would be. 100 wraps of thread about .5inches of herl has got to be more tooth resistant then 10. And it looks as good, if not better, then the simple wrap-with-thread method. The shafts are compressed while the barbules still stick out.

 

I probably haven't described what I saw correctly, but the next time you are putting herl on any fly, give this method a try and you will see what I'm talking about. Like me, you might not ever use the wrap method anymore.

[bulltrout]

there was an article in one of my old Fly Fisherman mags on a fly called "Matt's Gnat" and he did something similar in making a peacock and ostrich herl rope using a loop of thread...will try to find out what year it was published...

[maxwell]

ive bin doin it since i read dons article a few years back..makes the princes and whatever hella much stronger...defnietly worth a shot if u havnt already....and are sick of herl bustin up on ya spinnin around after a few fish

[DonAndersen]

Guys,

 

The plan was to make a fly that floated and lasted. Both were accomplished. Hence the name 100 fish fly. [ C is roman numeral for 100, F is for fish and second F is for fly]

If you really want dubbing to hold, use a loop of thread + the herl [ or dubbing] + a stand of light wire. Twist together. Pheasant Tail nymphs really work well using this technique. Similarly, I've added loops of Flashabou into the thread loop as well.

Tough flies are GOOD!

 

catch ya'

 

 

Don

[DonAndersen]

Guys,

 

To make the dubbing or herl last longer, I use a twister I built utilizing a Matterelli hackle plier that broke. I placed a Sunrise Hackle plier into the chrome loop and pinched just enough to hold it there. The Sunrise hackle plier has crappy jaws. To repair, I slid a piece of small heat shrink tubing onto each jaw and shrank using a heat gun. The shrink tubing is available from Radio Shack.

The bodkin is make from pieces of cane rod that didn't make the grade. A decent length of needle + 30 minute epoxy finished it off.

 

catch ya'

 

 

Don

[hydropsyche]

Another great idea. I used the same type of hackle pliers and the slow part is in the twisting. Those would make it much easier.

 

That bodkin is grade A.

[SilverDoctor]

I've used Don's method for a while now and it works great. It's much faster now on my Nore-Vice. Spins it up in a second. Another nice variation is to spin it with some fine copper wire. bulletproof and ads a bit of weight and sparkle.