I tied up several tailhooks last night on VMC9171 4/0s, 5/0s, and 6/0s

This was my first time tying as opposed to buying and I used Danville (red) nylon stretch thread since I saw it at the Fly store in West Concord. I applied about 3-4 coats of Head cement with about 10 minutes between coats.

Do you recommmend anything on top of the head cement to make them stand up to the rigors of SW and fish mouths?

here is a pic of my 1st batch. I just held the hooks in my hand (no vise) and hand wrapped without a bobbin tool. Seems pretty easy just getting a clean cut of the front portion of the syn material and a nice tight wrap with most of the strands laying in the top section of the hook shank.

Any more pieces of advice as I get down this learning curve?

First thing is to keep tails SPARSE. They can have an impact on plug action if too overly dressded. That being said, I don't use head cement at all, just epoxy. Lasts quite a while 'till a blue grabs the tail hook:rolleyes: BTW those tails look great. A bit longer and heavier than I'd tie but nice look.

Here's a couple more if your interested. I use Beacon Fabri Tech glue on all my tails. Put some on the hook before you even start the thread. The glue will envelope all the material and thread as you wrap giving some squeeze out between strand. This stuff is completely water proof, stays clear, and is cheap too. I get it at Wally world or Michaels. When done tying I clean up the excess and then coat in epoxy. You can put the eye of the hook in a pair of pliers and the material end in another and pull as hard as you like to test. The material that you made the tail out of will break before it comes off the hook every time. I also would make them a little shorter, say 1" past the bend of the hook. Also get a vise if your going to do your own.

You have made a good start, keep up the good work.:kewl:

Tease out the bucktail, or use a few batches of different length and roll in your fingers, to get more taper to the the tail.
Keep it sparse.
Try thin hackles with a short collar of bucktail around them.
Don't cut your flash material the same length and only use a few strands each side (important).

Thanks guys for all these great tips....


chris

Timely post as I started to tye a few today,I really need to get a proper vice.Nice work BT