Hair wing tubes - a basic question

[fenton]

Ok folks, here is a really basic question, but I'm sure that a few good tips will be forthcoming.....

When tying a hair winged tube fly, eg a willie gunn, when you are trying to acheive an even amount of hair all of the way around the tube, what is the best way to do this?


Apologies if this question fits in the category of muppetry, and I look forward to your (kind) answers!

cheers
F

[doublehooked]

Catch the bucktail in with a few turns of thread then spread the hair around the tube keeping the hair straight and even as you go.

[Sloggi]

It's a good question and one area of fly-tying that's not easy to do well.

The advice from DHooked is how I do it, but what has really helped is getting a vice the revolves 360 degrees.

[fenton]

Thanks for the replies guys. This is what I like about this forum, good advice without patronising replies to basic questions.

I have already seen an improvement in my flies. Hope the fish think so too!

cheers
F

[charlieh]

When tying a Willie Gunn, I mix the orange and yellow hair, tie in a bunch and then spread it sideways as described previously. Repeat with another bunch at 180 degrees to this. I then tie in the black hair on top, using the same method but with the two bunches at 90 degrees to the orange & yellow. Thus I end up having tied in 4 separate bunches, one in each quadrant of the tube. The colour blending is pretty good, but I don't mind having a bit of a gap so the brighter colours show through a bit. Only thing to be careful of is that you don't overdress. Maybe slightly more labour intensive than other methods, but since I don't tie professionally and am quite fussy about my flies it's time well spent IMO.

Obviously the same method applies to other patterns that require blended colours. Incidentally, I generally prefer this style to flies with the hair tied in distinct bunches, though there are those who take the opposite view. A black & yellow tied in four distinct bunches is popular on Tweed - called something like Gordon's Fancy (after Gordon Sim, formerly boatman on the Junction, IIRC).