Splitting Tails

[dillon]

YouTube

After twenty some years of tying small dry flies, I'm always looking for ways to get better. Each segment of the dun, tails, abdomen, thorax, wing, hackle and head must be perfect to be consistently eaten by large trout. The fish key on elements of the fly that can trigger either a take or refusal. The tails are important as they balance the fly as it floats. Splitting microfibbet tails, my tailing material of choice, has always been my bane. I often struggle and fuss way to long to get them right. Saturday, I will be tying at the Fly Tyer and Fly Fishing Expo, in Albany Oregon. So, last night I was practicing by making a size 16 Thorax PMD Dun, one of my favorite flies to tie and fish. The bump method for splitting tails has never consistently worked for me and it's hard for me to separate the fibbets with the tying thread. After struggling, then completing the first fly i wasn't happy with the amount of time spent nor the results. I thought to myself there must be a better way to do this and resorted to my friend, You Tube. The first video I found, the guy was going to use six fibers. I like to use two for this elegant pattern, so promptly stopped watching that one. In the column of videos on the right, i spied a rusty spinner with two perfectly split tails, click.

I watched, then tied my own. They came out perfect, quickly and simple. I was so stoked, I thought I'd pass it on. When attaching the thread to the hook leave about a six inch tag end, snap it off, and save it. After covering the shank of the hook with thread, tie in two tails, no thread bump. Then separate the tails a little bit with your fingers. Next, take the piece of thread you saved and fold it in half around the bend of the hook. Finally, hold the two ends together and pull the thread up and through the split tails. Secure the thread to the shank with your tying thread and you're done. Perfect split tails every time, quick and easy.

 

[scotty macfly]

That is flippin' brilliant!!! That's going to help me out a bunch because I too struggle with those micro tail fibers, and like you, I only use two. I was shown to criss cross them, and that is a big pain in my side. Most of the time I drop them never to be found again.

Thanks.

 

[ivory arrow]

Great tip. Thanks for sharing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[spm]

Great tip, Dillon.

Thanks for posting.
steve

 

[sweetandsalt]

Great tip, Dillon. Much better than my long time fumbling cris-crossing thread between them.

 

[brownbass]

I started tieing my own flies about a year ago and one fly I knew I had to tie was an RS2. Those tails gave me fits until at a fly tieing class a few weeks ago we were tieing the RS2, my kryptonite fly. Tieing the tail as you did, my second one came out perfect. I was like a kid, I had to show it to everyone.

Bill

 

[silver creek]

When tying spinners the way in the original video, I suggest NOT using a piece of tying thread as in the video. Instead, use a piece of FLOSS the same color as the egg sac of the female spinner. On occasion, trout will key on the female version over the male and the egg save imitation will catch more fish. For Hendricksons spinners, use yellow floss.

For non spinner dry fly patterns here a way to do 2 or 3 split tail without needing to use a separate piece of thread. It's good to know a few different ways.

YouTube

There is a third method or splitting tails:

Bud Hockley of Baltimore Maryland devised a method of tying spit or fan tails. This method was described in the 1985 September issue (vol 16, issue 6) of Fly Fisherman Magazine, pg 36 by none other than John Betts, the originator of microfibbets.

1. Tie an even number of Betts microfibbets or stiff hackle fibers in the usual manner and overwrap them with thread back to just before the start of the bend of the hook. Give yourself the room for two more wraps of thread before the bend starts.

2. Take a smooth dubbing needle and place it across the hook between the tails and the hook. Slide the needle toward the eye of the hook so that it lifts the tails off the hook. Now wrap two turns of thread around the dubbing needle and the hook as if you were going to tie the needle to the hook. This will slide the two turns of thread under the tail fibers. Gently pull the needle out as you tighten the thread, and guide the thread so that they lie around the hook, but under the tail fibers, and just in back of the thread wraps which tie the tail down.

3. Now take the dubbing needle and place it along side of the hook closest to you with the tip of the needle toward the eye of the hook. There should be a little space between the hook and needle to maneuver the needle. Now take the thread around the needle, and between the hook and the tails, as if you were going to tie the needle to the back of the hook. As you tighten the thread, gently remove the needle and guide the thread so that it comes to lie on top of the two wraps you place in step two. This wrap will further splay the tails from the back of the hook

4. Keep repeating step three to place multiple wraps of thread just at the base of the tails, between the tails and the hook, until the tails begin to fan and split. When you have built up the thread ball, use your fingers to even up and split the tails and elevate them if you want.

5. Now take the thread and take a couple of cross wraps around the tail to hold them in the final position.

There you have it. The Hockley method of split or fan tailing a fly without using a dubbing ball. BTW, Hockley uses it for stonefly nymphs as well as dry flies.

 

[kentuckysteve]

Great tips.Thanks for posting these guy's.

 

[el jefe]

If you guys like tips like these, I suggest you read Charlie Craven's fly tying books. Though some of his titles sound like they are aimed at beginners, there are so many great tips like the one above that they belong in everyone's library, regardless of their fly tying proficiency.

 

[flav]

Thanks, micro fibbets are my tailing material of choice as well. I've never had very much trouble splitting them myself, but this is a pretty nice way to do it. I like the idea of using floss of a different color to represent an egg sack. I've been filling my dry fly box this week, so I'll be giving it a try.

 

[silver creek]

Thanks, micro fibbets are my tailing material of choice as well. I've never had very much trouble splitting them myself, but this is a pretty nice way to do it. I like the idea of using floss of a different color to represent an egg sack. I've been filling my dry fly box this week, so I'll be giving it a try.

Flav,

In case you didn't catch my post on cheap microfibbets on an older thread here it is:

Microfibbets are the fibers from artist's paint brushes. I wait until there is a coupon for JoAnns, Michaels, or Hobby Lobby, then buy a wide flat brush.

You can color them with a permanent marker if you buy the white brushes. I buy the one below and cut off the handle.

Note the tiny parachute fly below with the fan tail of paint brush fibers. Also note that I have cut fibers off the left side of the paint brush. Since the fibers are lined up on the brush, there is no need to "stack" the fibers before tying them in.





 

[dennyk]

Good Stuff!

I know what I'll be doing when I get home today!

Denny

 

[dillon]

Microfibbets can be used as antennae as well. i used some brown ones on a few emperor caddis today. I didn't need to worry about splitting them, they seemed to splay out over the eye just fine. Antennae are often over looked, but can be a part of the bug that trout pay attention to, so I hear. The brown ones pictured above would have worked swell.

Silver Creek, have you tried the needle method for splitting tails? It looks interesting but I don't quite follow the diagrams. I have the same issue with trying to learn a knot from a drawing. Again, You Tube is my friend, but couldn't find the needle method there.

 

[silver creek]

Microfibbets can be used as antennae as well. i used some brown ones on some emperor caddis today. I didn't need to worry about splitting them, they seemed to splay out over the eye just fine. Antennae are often over looked, but can be a part of the bug that trout pay attention to, so I hear. The brown ones pictured above would have worked swell.

Silver Creek, have you tried the needle method for splitting tails? It looks interesting but I don't quite follow the diagrams. I have the same issue with trying to learn a knot from a drawing. Again, You Tube is my friend, but couldn't find the needle method there.

I have tried the needle method and it works.

Truth be told, the previous methods of split tails look great but I'm not convinced that most trout care so I use the small dubbing ball method of tailing. It is very fast and so that's what I do. By using an egg sac color for the ball and making it larger on spinners also forms the egg sac.

"One of the most common tail dividing methods involves splitting the tail fibers around a small dubbing ball. With the tying thread hanging at the rear of the hook twist on a tiny amount of dubbing, just enough to cover the thread and change its color. Build a tiny dubbing ball by winding the dubbing onto the hook one wrap on top of another. Dry fly specific dubbings work best as these fine blends twist easily onto the thread helping form a small proportional ball. With the dubbing ball complete, tie in the tail material at the midpoint of the shank. Secure the tail material back down the shank towards the dubbing ball. As you secure the tail toward to the dubbing ball the fibers begin to flare. Guide equal amounts of tail material along either side of the dubbing ball to create an even divided tail. Continue securing the tail to the base of the dubbing ball."

Fly Patterns

FAOL also has an article on how to split tails.

Split Tails, Wings and Thorax Flies Beginning Fly Tying, Part 16 - FAOL

 

[brownbass]

What color dubbing do you use to form the ball that represents an egg cluster?

Bill

 

[dennyk]

Bill, I use yellow, orange or cream to form the egg sacs on my flies. I do split the tails the way Silver does it.

Denny

 

[silver creek]

What color dubbing do you use to form the ball that represents an egg cluster?

Bill

Depends on the mayfly. There is orange, yellow, green, black, etc. If you are in a heavy group of spinners, you will even find egg clusters on your waders.

Now that you know about matching eggs, you can start paying attention to the hatches in your streams.

mayfly egg sack patterns - Bing images

 

[dillon]

I didn't like the dubbing ball method to spilt tails because I thought it detracted from the delicate slim taper of the abdomen. However, if the fish sometimes key on the egg sac, now I see the value of it on spinners. Perhaps one should carry a both with and without the eggs. If we could only ask the fish, "Would you like your rusty spinner with eggs today?"

 

[sweetandsalt]

Over easy with a side of thick bacon, please. Yes, an egg sack version of some spinners is good to carry (Lady Beaverkill) but for duns or flush cripples, clean split tails with no bump interfering with the delicately and slender tapered abdomen is important. These tails and tapered abdomen make a more distinct imprison in the surface meniscus than the wings of even legs sometimes do...though leg length relative to the thorax proportions, so often way too long, is important too.

 

[dillon]

I am tying mayfly abdomens with a goose biot rather than dubbing as the biot creates striations that the trout may key on. The use dubbing for the thorax to add th illusion of legs. The bottom hackle fibers are clipped off so the fly floats flush on smooth water. It's not as important on water with a chop. Adult may flies should differ according to where they are fished. The No Hackle may fly is designed for smooth water presentation.

Quality dry flies are very important. The fish don't care about your fancy rod and reel...