any tips/suggestions for tying small flies

[samhall]

I have been hard at work at the bench lately. Tying lots of buggers, caddis pupa and pt nymphs...
I need to fill some spots in my flybox with small dries and am having fits working with size 22 and 24 hooks.

Any tips or suggestions you folks might have for tying small griffiths gnats or adams?

Smallest dry I tied last year was a size 18 usual...and they are ugly.

[Alpinefly]

Practice on larger hooks; such as 16's. When you are confident, and feel comfortable tying on 16's (where they look good and not ugly), then move to the next smaller hook (18, then 20, 22, 24, etc.). You may want to get some books such as AK Best's book on Production Fly Tying, and another book with tying advice by Al & Gretchen Beatty. Both have great advice and techniques that will improve your tying; even cut down on tying time. Be specific as to where your problems are at. Are you having problems with getting the wings to look good and proper ? Proportion ??? What materials to use ??? Feel free to PM me with specifics. We have a lot of great tyers and Fly designers on this site. You will get better with practice, and the more time you spend at the fly vise. Great tyers do not happen over night. Rick Takahashi has great suggestions in his Book, "Modern Midges" (along with Jerry Hubka) on how to tie Griffiths Gnats. Books on Western Fly Tying by Jack Dennis are a classic when it comes to patterns like the Adams. Oliver Edwards Essential Elements has great DVD's as to tying technique. There are many great DVD's that will instruct you in tying even the basic patterns such as Adams (take a look in Feathercraft Catalogue Book & DVD section). Go to You Tube. There is some free instruction on there.

[Ernest]

What Alpinefly wrote is all good.

It seems that when some guys step down to the small sizes, they use way too much material. The little hooks almost float by themselves. Keep the bodies very thin, very sparse. Two turns of hackle will do for a #22 where a #16 uses four turns.

I don't tie a winged fly like an Adams smaller than #18, and I've made few of those. Smaller flies don't need all the features of the bigger flies; my small dries are just a body and a hackle, and only sometimes with a tail.

It is important that your materials are scaled for the small flies. That's easy to understand with hackle, but look at the range of sizes of peacock herl. I've looked a long time for small herl in fly shops and didn't find any, and then picked up some cast off feathers in a zoo that were just right for a #22 griffiths gnat.

[samhall]

These are great suggestions. I have been having issues with the body sizing and just managing the hackle. Big hands working with small pieces = headache sometimes. Just need more time on the bench working with it. I have decided to drop the small adams from the list. The gnat is fine, but I fish tiny dries so infrequently...I am comfortable letting that do the heavy lifting for me.

BTW...anyone have a decent bead sizing chart? I used to have one and don't know what I did with it.

In the meantime I am going to track down the Takahashi book.

[samhall]

I am not the biggest fly fisherman magazine fan...but these links are interesting.

http://www.flyfisherman.com/foundati...riffiths-gnat/

http://www.flyfisherman.com/foundati...nt-tail-nymph/

http://www.flyfisherman.com/foundati...woolly-bugger/

[Alpinefly]

FYI, a Hackle Gage (sp) such as that put out by Whiting is a great tool when it comes to proper fly Proportion (sold in Feathercraft Catalogue). Many of us Oldtimers still think our eyes are best at sizing hackles though. lol You will find that the Catskill Patterns have a sparse Hackle, and the Western Dry Fly Patterns are more heavily Hackled (Faster Water out West). BTW,
If you have any great Terrestrial Patterns that you have designed, please contact me (PM).