Tying Up Loose Ends by Randall Thorpe One of the added attractions of fly fishing is the ability to create your own flies. Catching a fish on a lure that you handcrafted adds so much to the flavor of the sport that it can become addictive, both the fishing and the lure making. In some cases, creating the lure takes a higher priority than using it in fishing. Fly tying  has been elevated to an art form. And it is also a lot of fun. There are truckloads of well written books on how to tie flies and I don’t consider my meager skills to be a serious challenge to their authority.  I would, however, like to offer a small tip that may be of help to someone looking for a different way of tying. Once your hook is firmly attached to the vise, your tools and materials are within reach, and you have a plan for tying a specific fly, your first step is to figure out how to attach the thread to the hook. Some patterns call for a thread base for most of the length of the shank and some call for areas of bare  hook to facilitate spinning certain materials, such as deer hair. The standard procedure is to lay the thread from your bobbin alongside the shank of the hook and wind the thread over itself  moving from the eye end of  the hook towards the bend. After a few turns, cut the tag end of the thread and continue winding toward the bend. You have started your thread base with a whip finish. Where you start your thread and how far back you wind will be determined by the type of fly you are tying. I am suggesting something a little different. Instead of cutting the tag end of your thread and continuing with the windings, start out with a thread that extends 4-5 inches past the bend of the hook, and then wind your bobbin thread back to the bend in the hook. This will leave a piece of thread extending beyond the bend  of the hook. What you do with this thread will be determined by your plan of  attack in tying specific patterns. The tying thread should be of a sufficient strength to accomplish your project. What follows is a short list of possible uses for the extended thread. The yellow color indicates the bobbin tube and the gray lines indicate the bobbin thread. One of the popular body materials in use today is peacock herl. Many patterns call for a number of strands of herl to be tied in at the hook bend, twisted together, and wrapped forward towards the eye, creating a buggy looking body. One downside to using herl is the fact that it can be cut or frayed by successive attacks by hungry fish. One work around has been to tie in a short piece of thread with the herl, twist it along with the herl and use the herl/thread combination to form the body of the fly.  See the diagram below. If you use the extended thread that is already attached to the hook instead of tying in an extra piece of thread, you have eliminated one step in forming the body. Another possibility is to use the extended thread in forming dubbed bodies. In the diagram below, I show two ways of doing this.  Attach a hackle pliers to the halfway point on the extended thread, bring the end of the thread back up to the hook shank and secure it with the bobbin thread. Insert your dubbing or hair fibers into the loop that is formed and twist the loop by spinning the hackle pliers.  Wrap this twisted loop forward as far as needed and secure with the bobbin thread. Another way is to attach the dubbing directly to the extended thread by pinching the dubbing and thread between your thumb pad and index finger and rolling them in one direction only to form a dubbing rope, wrap it forward as far as needed, and secure it with the bobbin thread. Another possibility is to dub the body using the bobbin thread and then wrap the extended thread forward to form a rib. See below. The extended thread does not have to project from the bend of the hook. Once you have wrapped your bobbin thread  five or six times over itself, pull the extended thread away from the hook shank and continue using the bobbin thread to build a thread base. Your extended thread is now available for use at the front of the hook. One popular style of dry fly is the parachute type of fly. In order to tie this type of fly, a support or post is necessary to hold the hackle and to act as wings. The normal way to accomplish this is to tie in a small clump of hair with the tips extending out over the eye, stand the clump up, secure it, and wrap a short thread base up the post to create a place to wrap the hackle. The thread base also provides a way of holding the fibers of the post together for a more durable anchor for the hackle. The theory is that if the post base doesn’t move, then the hackle feather stems shouldn’t move either. But they can. One problem with the parachute style of dry fly is the possibility of the hackle slipping up and off of the post while fighting a fish. If this happens, your nice parachute styled hackle will resemble a  spring that has sprung.  One solution to this problem has been to tie in a piece of thread when the post is being created that will be under the thread base for the post. Once the hackle is tied in, simply bring the thread down the outside of the thread base, over the hackle stems,  and tie it in near the head of the fly. The thread prevents the hackle stems from traveling up the post. An extended thread used here can do this. See the diagram below.  In this diagram, I have colored the extended thread red to show it’s position. Tie in the hackle feather at the base of the post, bring it up to the top of the thread base, and wrap back down to the hook shank (wrapping down the post  makes it easier to secure the tip to the hook shank). Bring your extended thread down to lock in the hackle stems, tie it off, and finish your fly. You may have notice that I have not included a tail in the diagrams shown so far in order to concentrate on a task at hand. Extended threads can also help with tailing a fly. In the diagram below we are looking down on the fly. The red lines indicate two biots that are to be used for tails. Tie in a small dubbing ball at the bend of the hook using either the extended thread or the bobbin thread, your choice. Make sure both threads hang from the indicated anchor point. Using the bobbin thread, tie in both tails at the anchor point and make sure they lay along side the ball of dubbing. This is to force them to splay outwards. Once they are secure, take the extended thread that is hanging at the indicated anchor point and wrap it to the back of the hook over the near tail and between the tail and the dubbing ball. Bring it back to the anchor point and secure it with the bobbin thread. Do the same with the other tail. This puts additional tension on the tail to stay splayed outward. Put additional wraps this way if you feel it is warranted. Once you are satisfied with the tails, use the extended thread to add more dubbing and dub over the initial dubbing ball and the biot bases. Then continue with the dubbed body. This places the tails coming out from the middle of the back end of the body and not from on top or on the sides. The fish may or may not care, but you will have a more interesting fly. One final suggestion concerns the paraloop style of tying. This involves creating a loop that is held under tension with a gallows tool and winding hackle up the loop similar to hackling a parachute fly. The difference is that the loop is then laid down along the hook shank and secured the way you would secure a dubbing loop or rope. If your extended thread is used to create the loop at the rear of the fly and laid down the full length of the hook shank and secured, you wind up with a palmered hackle. If the extended thread loop is created at the eye end of the hook and laid down over perhaps a small ball of dubbing, you wind up with a rounded densely hackled fly. This type of fly is also sometimes called a stacked hackle fly. See diagram below. The use of an extended thread is not earth shattering, but if it saves time and labor and gives you a more interesting fly it is worth it. Hatches Magazine Subscription Price: $6.95 for each issue The Premiere issue is ready for shipping & the Fall 2008 issue will be available September 1st.