We’ve all experienced it.  You’re a handful of casts into a full day of fishing and you notice that your fly (fresh of the vise from the night before) looks a bit funny on the water.  A closer look reveals that the hackle has come loose, the legs have been pulled out of the body, or the thread has unraveled and the fly is falling apart.

Many flies are tied with some amount of feathers, hair, fur and other natural ingredients.  These materials move and breathe in the water allowing tyers to create flies that look, act, and feel very life-like.  Unfortunately, these same materials are also fairly fragile!  The good news is that there are a number of simple guidelines and techniques that you can incorporate into your fly tying that will allow you to maximize the durability of your flies.

• Choose the Right Thread – With the wide variety of thread on the market, selecting the best one for your fly patterns can be tough.   A thread that is too light will prohibit you from tying some materials securely to the hook.  Large, heavy threads tend to build up very quickly which makes working with delicate materials difficult and leads to poorly finished heads.  While there is no magic formula for picking the right thread, the following guidelines will get you off on the right foot.  In general, the smaller and more delicate the fly, the lighter the thread.  A size 6/0 thread (140 denier) is usually a good place to start for most standard trout flies.  For larger trout flies or materials that require more pressure, jump up to a 3/0 thread (210 denier).  If you tie saltwater flies or big streamers, a flat waxed nylon thread will allow you to apply more pressure and give you a very smooth finish on a larger head.  A kevlar or GSP thread is the best choice if you want to tie deer hair bass flies.

• Thread Tension – Maintaining consistent thread tension will make a tremendous impact on the durability of your flies.  Many fly tyers unknowingly vary the amount of thread pressure as they wind materials onto the hook  – often causing them to unravel down the road.  In general, you want to apply your thread to the hook with as much tension as possible – without causing it to break.

• Minimize Thread Wraps – Ever closely watch a great fly caster?  How do they make casting look so easy?  Efficiency.  They are doing less work.  Their highly refined mechanics allow them to use fewer casting strokes to optimize distance and line speed.  The same is true of a great fly tyer.  Proper mechanics, thread and optimal thread tension permit fewer thread wraps and result in a cleaner, more securely tied fly.

• Lock Materials Around Your Tying Thread – Many materials are slippery and can slide out form under their securing thread wraps – even if the tyer used good thread tension.  Folding the material around the tying thread before applying it to the hook will lock it in place much more securely that wrapping over the ends.

• Use Counter Wrap – Sometimes you are forced to use a softer, less durable material to achieve the desired look or action in a fly.  The hackle wound around the body of a wooly bugger is a great example.  While the quill of the hackle feather is somewhat durable, it can become more brittle over time and doesn’t stand up well against a fish’s teeth.  An easy way to increase the durability and life of your fly is to use a light piece of wire as a counter wrap to the hackle.  After you tie in your marabou tail, saddle hackle and chenille on the hook shank just over the barb, tie down a few inches of light wire extending off the back of the hook.  Once you’ve wrapped your chenille and hackle forward, spiral the wire forward in the opposite direction than you wrapped the hackle.  Done under pressure, this will firmly secure the hackle to the body of the fly and allow the feather to stay in place even if the quill is damaged down the road.

• Adhesives –  Fly tyers have a huge number of adhesives to choose from including Zap-a-Gap, Dave’s Felxament, epoxy, Clear Cure Goo, and Tuffleye…just to name a few.  They all have different uses and can be a great way to increase the durability of your flies.  The biggest problem fly tyers have when it comes to adhesives is using too much.  In an attempt to create a ‘bullet-proof’ fly, many tyers literally pour on the glue.  Unfortunately, this often leads to a matted, rock-solid, very poorly tied fly that no longer acts the right way in the water.  Try to use these products sparingly and in strategic locations.  One of my favorite techniques comes from renowned fly tyer Dave Whitlock.  To secure a material with super glue without using too much or causing the glue to soak into other materials, simply roll down your bobbin and apply a few tiny beads of the glue to the thread between the bobbin and the hook shank.  Then wrap the material to your fly using the glue soaked thread.

• Synthetics –  One of the easiest ways to improve the durability of your flies is to substitute synthetics for some of  the more fragile natural materials.  For example, if you are tying a Royal Wulff and find that the peacock herl just doesn’t hold up as long as you would like, try using some peacock colored Ice Dubbing.  This synthetic dubbing has the look and iridescence of peacock, is easily to use and will last much longer.
  

Try some of these techniques and suggestions the next time you sit down at the vise.  Not only will your flies last longer, but you will begin to think outside the box and develop new techniques of your own.