Friday, November 11, 2011

Tying up the partridge and biot tutorial.



I twist up these little softies for the winter months, they produce well. I like to fish them behind the golden oldie.  In the tutorial i will show you a way to use up those big partridge feathers you have. The fly i tie is a size 16, and the hackle i use is about an 8. 

The biots I use for them can be acquired from a craft store or from where i get them, Wal-mart.  They are very cheap and you get tons of biots.  The colors are very dark and vibrant. You get 5 different colors, red, blue/violet, green, orange, and yellow.  I believe the feathers are from ducks, what ever they are they are point feathers with biots.  The biots are rather small and short, so small flies is where these guys shine.





Lets get started tying one. For this one I will tie up a yellow.
Hook in vise, Start your thread, lay down a nice thread base back to just beyond the point

Get yourself your biot. With the feathers the longest biot are located roughly in the middle. Take a look at the none biot side. It is almost a mirror image of the biots. Where this side is longest, the biots will be as well.

Tie your biot on the top of the hook shank, with the concave side up. Biot tips are brittle if they are died to this degree,(you can soften them by soaking them in water before you tie, A good 15min soak will make them very pliable) So be sure, if tying dry to tie it in a little was up on the biot. Bring your tying thread forward to about a hook eye and half back from the eye

Wrap you biot, touching turns forward to your tying thread. If you wrap the same as your thread you will get the raised rib effect, the opposite way will result in the striped rib effect.  Play around see which you prefer.  Tie down the biot and trim the excess.

Dub a small thorax area.

Select a partridge feather, and strip off the fluff. Then pinch the tip and stroke the barbs back to expose the tip. Then snip it out.  Remove any extra hackle barbs you dont want on the fly. Your basically selecting how much hackle you would like the fly to have.

Measure your hackle length, You can make it as long or as short as you desire. 

Once you decide what length you want hold the middle over the top of the hook shank, and pinch the hackle barbs to each side. Take one loose turn over the partridge. Tighten the wrap, letting go of the partridge as you tighten.

The barbs will spin around the shank, you can work them into position with your finger nail as well.  Once your happy, you can then take a few tight wraps to secure the hackle.  I like to go three wraps on top of the hackle butt end, and then lift it up and do two wraps on the shank. Clip off the butt end of the hackle.

Whip yourself a nice head and snip your thread.

Give the head a good coating of cement if you desire. You now have a partridge and biot, which trout cant refuse.

Here are some other flies tied from using the package of feathers.






7 comments:

  1. Great instructions on what I would say is a productive pattern.

    Thanks.

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  2. Brk- Thank you, and sure are productive for me, give them a try some time. There a quick tie and a great way to burn up those big partridge feathers.

    All my best
    Johnny Utah

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  3. Nice tutorial. My buddy G Lech ties me a bunch of soft hackles. I love them!

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  4. Thank you Martin, G lech is a good guy. Soft hackles are my favorite.

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  5. Great post, thanks for sharing this technique, I have a lot of partridge laying around that is about to get used up!

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  6. Johnny, after seeing this pattern first hand how awesome they looked on the river. I went to Wally*World and someone cleaned them all out at the three Wally stores in my area.

    Maybe i can order them online? What brand are they?

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  7. Ian- Thank you, The technique is great for burning up those huge partridge feathers. It has helped me finish of partridge skins.

    Mad Man- Thank you. I hope you enjoy the flies. I will stop at wally today and pic you up a pack. I seen they had them last time i went.

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