step: 2 |
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Slide the bead onto the hook and up to the hook eye. Start the tying thread and wrap a thread base back to the bend of the hook. |
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step: 3 |
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Cut two goose biots from the stem, oppse their curves and even their tips. Tis the biots in at the bend of the hook so their tips extend beyond the hook bend about a half shank length. |
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step: 4 |
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Wrap forward over the butt ends of the biots to the mid-point on the hook and clip the excess there. Tie in a length of lead wire along the far side of the hook shank starting right behind the bead. Bigger hooks will require larger diameter lead and smaller hooks...well, you know... |
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step: 5 |
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Wrap the thread back over the lead to just in front of the base of the tails. wrap tightly as you go over the lead. Once you have the wire secured along the side of the hook, pull on the long end of the wire and it will break off cleanly and taper its end in the process. |
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step: 6 |
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Repeat the lead along the side of the hook process on the near side of the hook. This lead underbody forms a wide, flattened chassis for the biot overbody. Chez Realistic. |
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step: 7 |
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Wrap the thread over the lead underbody forming a smooth thread base. |
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step: 8 |
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Select a long, wide turkey biot from the stem. Tie the biot in by its tip end with the ridge on the bottom side of the tie down. We want to from a ribbed body with this biot so the stand-up edge should be facing down when we tie it in. Like this>>>>>>>> |
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step: 9 |
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Grab the butt end of the biot in your hackle pliers and wrap it forward in evenly spaced turns as far as you can. When you run out of biot, tie it off and clip the excess. You will probably only make it halfway with the first biot, but here's where Mercer's Magic comes in... |
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step: 10 |
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Now, cut another biot from the stem and trim the tip of the feather back a bit so the alignment will match up with the first biot. (If you tie it in by the natural pointed tip, the segments will be too close together in the middle of the body). |
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step: 11 |
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Tie the second biot in as you did the first, taking care to butt the tie in down to the front of the first biot. You want as seamless a transition as possible, something I didn't quite get here on this pattern, but I had this damn camera in the way and I had a headache and I was really sad cause my dog ran away. You'll do better. |
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step: 12 |
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Wrap the second biot forward to the two thirds point and tie it off there. Clip the excess. See what i mean by a not-so-seamless transition here, LOL? |
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step: 13 |
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Cut a slip from a turkey tail feather that is about as wide as the gap of the hook. Clip the tip end of the feather so it is square and tie it in on top of the front edge of the biot abdomen with the inside of the feather facing up. |
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step: 14 |
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cut another identical slip from the turkey feather and prepare it as you did above by cutting the tip square. Tie this one in on top of the first. You are indeed making two wingcases, one on top of the other...a double decker wingcase, if you will... |
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step: 15 |
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Dub a thorax with either Mercer's Buggy nymph dubbing or the tan SowScud dubbing. mercer uses a dubbing loop for the thorax on his flies and in the case of larger patterns (#6 and 8), this is the right thing to do. for smaller patterns, just direct dub the dubbing onto the thread and wrap a robust thorax as shown here. |
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step: 16 |
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Clip the tip out of a partridge or hen feather, forming a V shape as seen here. You are only going to clip the center stem of the feather, leaving the fibers sticking out the sides. Peel the fluff and fibers from the bottom of the feather so the remaining fibered stem of the feather is only as long as the thorax/dubbed section of the fly. Tie the feather in to the hook shankin front of the dubbed thorax so it is centered on the hook with the stem of the feather running straight up the center of the thorax. |
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step: 17 |
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Pull the top wingcase (the second one you tied in) over the top of the thorax and feather and bind it down just behind the hook eye. |
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step: 18 |
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Pull the second wingcase over the top of the first and tie it down as well. This double layer wingcase will prevent the epoxy from soaking all the way through later. |
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step: 19 |
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Put a coat of epoxy on the top of the wingcase, from front to back and edge to edge, forming a smooth bulb on the top of the wingpad. |
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step: 20 |
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Now sit there and wait for about five minutes while the epoxy dries. maybe read a book, clean up your tying mess a little...feed the dog...kill a few mintues while you wait. Whistling is good too. |
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step: 21 |
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Alright, first of all, admit it...You really did whistle, didn't you?
Dub a bit of dubbing (the same stuff as you used for the thorax) onto the thread and wrap a short collar to fill in the gap between the bead and the wingcase.
Whip finish the thread ight behind the bead and clip. |
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step: 22 |
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Use a brown marker to color the ribbed edge of the biot abdomen and mottle it up a bit. Run the marker down the biot tails as well just to mix it up a little. |
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step: 23 |
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How's that? |
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step: 24 |
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Bottom view. |
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step: 25 |
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Top view. And since you're gonna ask....I don't do biot antennae, as cool as it looks. I always seem to end up tying them down in my clinch knot when I tie the fly on and then end up trimming them off, so I just save myself the trouble and skip them. Your mileage may vary;-) |
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