Classic salmon fly

We enters now the most interesting part of the tying. The wing of a traditional salmon was always and will be always the hardest part. For 2 reasons, first is to find the feathers of qualities and the second will be to attach this one in the best possible position and it is there that all becomes complicated. How to make? Which is the trick? Easy way? When I saw for the first time the flies of Wayne Luallen or Marvin Nolte I thought that these people had a talent , a thing which I did not have and when for the first time I tried to tie a wing there I believed to give up definitively. I do not hope the hundreds of hours to be sought, understand, with pester especially when you are all alone with little documentation, anyway, now is in my turn to show you

ETAPE 1 : Select all the colors which you need.

ETAPE 2 : Preferably use symmetrical feathers having equal fibres length on each side. Not easy to find.

ETAPE 3 : To know on which side the fibres will be placed to form the wing, I place the feather at the top of the hook. All the fibres which are on the left side will be used to make the near side of the wing. I do the same for the other side, the fibres which are on the right side will be used to make the far side of the wing.

ETAPE 4 : A very significant point, the fibres must have the same curve. If one of the sides of the wing is tied with fibres from which the curve is different from the other side the tying of this one will not be right.

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ETAPE 5 : Symmetrical feathers are very difficult to find, so you will be obliged to use non-symmetrical feathers. It will be necessary for you to have a matched pair, one on the left-hand side and one on the right-hand side.

ETAPE 6 : On an asymmetrical feather only one side is usable, in the green circle you can see that the fibres do not have the proper curve, and are incompatible to form a wing.

ETAPE 7 : Even steaming the feather will not change its form. These long fibres are excellent to tie a nymph body.

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ETAPE 8 : On this feather only the right side is good. The fibres from the bottom will be used to make small wings, the fibres from the top for large wings.

ETAPE 9 : Here you have a pair of feathers of which the fibres from each side are usable. These feathers are symmetrical.

ETAPE 10 : Select the colors which you wish. I build my wings with a base of 24 fibres, as I will use 4 colors, I would need 4 X 6 fibres of each color.

ETAPE 11 : Cut 6 fibres from each side from each feather

ETAPE 12 : It is very important not to mix fibres and to respect their side strictly. It is not possible to marry fibres from opposite sides.

ETAPE 13 : Here you have fibres for each side. 24 fibres on both sides.

ETAPE 14 : To compose my wings I always use the same principle. Always place the darkest colors at the top to obtain a range of darkest to lightest. First place the chestnut turkey fibres on the yellow fibres. It is important to respect the alignment of the tips. The tips should taper like the natural feather.

ETAPE 15 : Simply putting the fibres in contact with each other is often enough to make them stick together. Sometimes gentle stroking will help them stick together. The principle of marrying the fibres is similar to velcro.

ETAPE 16 : With the point of my scissors I separate the turkey fibres to leave only 2 of them on the yellow fibres.

ETAPE 17 : I do the same thing with the yellow fibres.

ETAPE 18 : I continue while placing 2 fibres of light green color under the yellow then 2 fibres of white under the light green. I obtain my first sequence of 8 fibres which I will repeat 2 times.

ETAPE 19 : Here it is. One side of my wing is finished.

ETAPE 20 : I do the same thing with fibres on the opposite side.

ETAPE 21 : I place the 2 wings face to face.

ETAPE 22 : then I adjust them so that they are the same length. Your first wing is now ready for the tying.

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