I had a couple of chats with some of the forumers about tying the X-Factor dry fly.
a. before you start, sort your CDC feathers, in a packet there are so many sizes shapes and textures.
I take a packet, and spread the feathers on the table. then I put feathers that are the same size, texture and barb length together.
making up pairs. I then take the 2 feathers and clamp the end of the stem in the vice, and do a couple of thread wraps over the end and whip finish the 2 feather together.
When tying the it is easy to take 2 feathers out of the packet, matching in size, shape, texture and barb length.
b. Because of the difference in shape, size, texture, density of barbs etc in the CDC feathers, it is very seldom that you will find that your X-Factor dry flies will all look 100% the same.
c. remember when pulling the CDC feather down/out, the form the wings, the torque on the feathers will decrease, as the feathers gets thinner, as you pull. The tying thread will be "looser" around the shank. if not carefull, the feathers will slip to the side of the hook shank.
d. the bottom sections of the feathers stems, after trimming off, keep in a little contianer. there are a lot of the CDC barbs left on the bigger/longer feathers. You can trim this off and have lovely cdc dubbing for other flies or for the dubbing of the thorax/wings section.
e. the wings can sometimes be a bit wide apart or to flat. Use the cdc dubbing to mould/form the wing in the position that you want to be on the finished fly
Last edited by Korrie; 30-10-13 at 07:44 AM.
Korrie Broos
Don't go knocking on Death's door, ring the bell and run like hell. He hates it. (anon)
Nymphing, adds depth to your fly fishing.
Nymphing, is fly fishing in another dimension
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