Bob Quigley is a master fly tier and creator of patterns such as the Quigley Cripple and the Hackle Stacker series of flies. (Geoff Mueller photos)
February 21, 2025
By Bob Quigley
This article originally appeared in the December 2008 issue of Fly Fisherman.
When fishing, the best weapon we have is confidence in our fly selection, and we often have the most confidence in flies we tie ourselves .
These tips can help you refine your tying skills resulting in more angling success.
1. Demonstrating and Teaching Whether you are a beginner or an expert tier, teaching someone else how to tie flies is the best way to become a better tier yourself. Take the time to demonstrate fly tying to someone else. This helps you break any fly pattern into its basic elements, and as you explain the tying process, you find ways to refine and improve it.
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Many relevant observations and questions arise from observers and students, and in many cases, your students may end up teaching you something. No matter how much preparation and anticipation I put into my tying classes, my students often manage to reverse the teaching process.
2. Parachute Hackle Tie the prepared hackle across the top of the hook in front of the wing post so that on the first wrap, the barbs are perfectly aligned at 90 degrees to the post. (David J. Siegfried photo) One of the most frequent questions I hear is: “How do I tie off parachute hackle?”
Strip off the webbing and a few extra barbs on the inside of the hackle stem. Tie the prepared hackle across the top of the hook in front of the wing post, shiny side up, and concave (dull) side underneath. This positions the hackle stem to inter- sect the base of the wing post so that on the first wrap, the barbs are perfectly aligned at 90 degrees to the post.
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Make the first wrap near the base of the post, and make three or four wraps for lightly dressed flies to use on spring creeks and stillwaters. Make twice as many wraps for fishing in swift water and riffles. Make sure that each wrap falls below the preceding one.
After the final wrap, position the hackle tip over the far side of the hook shank, just behind the hook eye, with hackle pliers still attached. Retract the thread into the bobbin until the bobbin tube actually touches the eye of the hook, then wrap over the hook shank and hackle tip, using the bobbin tube to control what you “catch” with the thread and to prevent extra hackle fibers from becoming trapped.
Use the bobbin tube to slide the thread underneath the parachute hackle. The bobbin will push the barbs slightly up as it passes underneath, allowing the hackle to regain its natural position and not get tied into the hook shank or eye. Half-hitch the thread with a small hitch tool.
Apply a small amount of cement to the top of the hackle on the wing, and to the head of the fly.
Use the bobbin tube to slide the thread underneath the parachute hackle so the thread does not trap hackle against the hook shank. (David J. Siegfried photo) 3. Super Glue Super Glue (cyanoacrylate glue, Krazy Glue , Zap-a-Gap ) is great stuff, but it’s also runny and can be tricky to work with.
Don’t use the Super Glue bottle to dispense glue directly onto your fly. Instead, apply the glue to a thin sewing needle or bodkin, and then dab the needle to the fly. This way you won’t ruin a fly you’ve nearly completed.
Add a drop of Super Glue before and after you figure-eight wrap dumbbell eyes. (David J. Siegfried photo) Many fly shops sell Zap-A-Gap, which has a precision applicator tube. It is possible to go directly from the bottle with this product.
If you want an indestructible biot, pheasant tail, turkey quill, or other quill-type body, apply an even layer of Super Glue to the underbody, wrap the body material, rib the body with wire, and apply a second coat of Super Glue over the body and let it dry before finishing the fly.
I usually tie the body, take it out of the vise, and put it into a block of foam or a fly holder and add the second coat of Super Glue there, so I can start another fly in the vise. I tie a dozen bodies, then go back and finish the flies when the glue is dry.
For indestructible nymph wingcases, apply a drop or two of Super Glue, allow it to dry, and then add a coat of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails . For dumbbell eyes, add a drop of Super Glue before you figure-eight wrap your thread, and another after you finish your wraps. After the glue dries, add a coat of Hard As Nails.
For the heads of my steelhead and saltwater flies, I apply a drop of Super Glue and two coats of Hard As Nails. This makes a glossy, bulletproof head without mixing epoxy and using a turning wheel.
Use a small amount of Super Glue on the clipped butts of streamer wings before tying them into place. A drop on the last wrap over the rib at the rear of Woolly Buggers makes them nearly indestructible.
When finishing beadhead or conehead flies, put a drop of Super Glue over the thread wraps securing the final material, make the final wraps in the groove between the material and the cone or bead, then clip the thread off. No whip- finish is required.
4. Simple Mayfly Tails Some mayflies have two tails and some have three. Since trout can’t count, I always tie three Microfibett tails for better balance and floatation.
Wrap your thread back to above the hook barb, then make several turns to form a small bump. Peel away three Microfibetts of equal length, and grasp the tails between your thumb and index finger. Place them in front of the bump and slightly on your side of the hook. Wrap the thread over the tails clockwise to spin them to the top of the hook shank. As you wrap toward the thread bump at the rear of the shank, thread pressure against the bump flares the tails outward. Adjust the tails with your thumbnail so they are evenly spaced left, right, and center.
5. Simple Hand Stacking Hand stacking saves time because you don’t need to use a stacking tool. (David J. Siegfried photo) Trim more than the amount of hair you actually need for the fly. Pinch and hold the tips with one hand and clean the butts with your other hand using your fingers or a comb.
Transfer the hair to the other hand and loosely surround the hair butts with the thumb and first two fingertips. Turn the bunch upside down and tap the hair tips against the palm of your other hand. Repeat if necessary. The movement and gravity align the tips without a stacker tool, which is costly in terms of time and efficiency.
6. Circle Wraps Make a circle wrap around the material, using the bobbin to position the thread under your forefinger on the opposite side of the hook shank and under your thumb on the near side of the hook shank. Slowly pull up with the bobbin to cinch the material into position. (David J. Siegfried photo) When working with bunches of hair, such as adding the wing to an Elk-hair Caddis, you do not want the hair to spin around the hook shank.
To keep hair where you want it—on top of the hook shank—stack, measure, and pinch the material in place with your thumb and forefinger. Make a circle wrap around the material at the tie-in point, using the bobbin to position the thread under the forefinger on the opposite side of the hook shank. Bring the thread up on the near side of the hook shank with the thread positioned under the thumb. Slowly pull up with the bobbin to tighten the loop and cinch the material into position.
7. Exposing the Hook Point To create a larger hook gap, use hemostats to off-set the hook shank about 10 degrees to the side. (David J. Siegfried photo) To improve your hook-ups with large dry flies—especially the bulky foam and spun deer-hair creations trout relish—slightly off-set the hook point. It’s amazing how much this improves your stick-to-strike ratio.
To off-set the hook point, grab the fly with hemostats behind the barb at the back bend of the hook. Bend the point slightly to the side and downward.
You can also off-set the hook point just before you tie the fly. With the hook bend in the jaws of the vise, grasp the hook shank and push it away and upward until the hook shank and the lower portion of the hook bend are not parallel.
Pinch the barb down with pliers. It leaves a little bump that helps hold a trout during the fight, but slips right out when you release the fish, or hook your- self or fishing companion. [If you find your hooks breaking when you off-set the point, you may be bending the steel too far and weakening the hook. Off-set the hook no more than 10 degrees from parallel. THE EDITOR.]
8. Trimming Synthetic Hair Hold baitfish imitations facing away from you and use scissors to trim a natural taper to the rear of the fly. (David J. Siegfried photo) I prefer the wing materials in my streamer patterns to have a natural taper at the tips. Translucent synthetic materials offer many color, texture, and luster choices, but many flies tied with these materials have blunt ends or square tips that do not look natural for swimming baitfish and other imitations.
A simple and easy way to properly taper synthetic hair fibers is to hold the fly in your nondominant hand so you can view it from the rear, which is often the angle from which the predator sees it. Trim the fiber ends with your scissors facing toward the eye of the hook, and clip top and bottom at a slight angle for a natural-looking pointed taper.
9. Measure Longer Materials When tying large streamers or stinger patterns, I tie one as a sample—with the proper length—then mark a spot on my vise where the tail or stinger hook reaches. This makes the proportions precise and consistent on each fly, and I save time by only having to measure materials once.
Proper fly length or size is just as important as color, silhouette, and action. When striped bass want a 3-inch smelt, a 4-inch imitation may look close to us, but not to the stripers.
10. Stacked Hackle Tangles When stacking hackle on my Backwing Stacker Caddis or stonefly patterns, the wing fibers can get in the way. To keep them from tangling in the hackle, use a short section of drinking straw with a lengthwise slit in it. Simply open the slit and place it over the wing to keep the hair and hackle from tangling. Slide off when finished.
11. Jungle Cock Eyes I learned this trick from John Shewey, and it’s one of the slickest ideas I’ve taken home from a tying demonstration. John placed two jungle cock eyes convex side up on his tying table, moistened his fingertips, and then stuck the two eyes to his two fingers. In one motion, he brought both jungle cock eyes to the fly at the same time, masterfully pinched them in their proper place, and with a few quick wraps secured them and finished the head.
Attend as many tying demonstrations as you can. You can always learn something from watching someone else.
12.-14. Quick Tips 12. Clean wet head cement or Super Glue out of the hook eye with the butt end of a hackle tip. This waste material does a great job of keeping the hook eye open and your hands clean.
Use the butts of hackle tips to clean glue and head cement from the hook eye. (David J. Siegfried photo) 13. Keep your bodkin clean by stuffing steel wool into a small jar. When you have glue on your bodkin, just run it through the steel wool a few times.
14. Fabricate your hackle hopper legs and sort and size the hackles for your flies before you tie. Also, attach all the beads and weight the hook shanks for your nymphs before you tie to increase efficiency and fly uniformity.
Bob Quigley was a fly designer and author. He lived in Ashland, Oregon.
