Tying Tom Tickler (Tolfrey) in hand
This tutorial shows how to tie in the old way, with no aid of fly tying vice or bobbing.
Step 1. Attaching silk gut
First step is to tie the silk gut eye under the hook shank, making a nice taper for the body.
Make sure to wax the Pearsall silk well for a good grip. Use waxed thread always, also for silk body. Otherwise the thread will just loosen and not sit on the hook properly..
Step 2. The tag
.Tie in silver twist and blue silk for the tag, next is golden pheasant tail...
Step 3. The tail and butt
The tail has been attached and so is the butt of black ostrich herl. Now the fly is ready for the body.
Step 4 . Body, rib and hackle
Gold tinsel tied on the backside of the hook (on the far side), the body hackle is tied where the second ribbing starts.
Cover the body with yellow silk.
Step 5 . Hackle ready to be winded
Add couple of turns with red seal fur in the front of the body.
Step 6 . Body done
Tie the tinsel and hackle around the body. Secure with few turnings in the front, leaving some space for throat hackle and head.
Step 7. Throat hackle
Tie guinea fowl hackle as a throat. Here I have saved too little space for making the head, I would make more room for making the head next time! The end point of the hook shank should be visible when the fly is completed.
Step 8 . Preparing the wing
Select fibers for the wing for each side, with the tip pointing down. Section below is the the nearest wing, the other lot is for the far side.
Step 9 . Stacking wing
Put the slices of the materials upon each other, making it a bunch of fibers.
Step 10 . Tying the wing down
Grip both set of wing, and tie them down. You can also put a small bunch of tippets as an underwing to stabilize both wngs, so they sit on both sides when tying them both down. Use well waxed thread, as you do for the rest of the fly.
Step 9 . Applying head cement
Put on cheeks and horns, and cut the waste end. When done, secure the whole head with varnish and let it dry. That way you seal the fibers so they dont move when it is sealed. Put som black varnish to cover the vaste end, and wrap a small amount of berlin wool to the thread in the same way as dubbing fur to the thread.
Final Step
When the berlin wool has been wrapped, take some whip finnish and secure the thread before cutting it of. The fly is now complete!