A couple Phillipsons chasing bulls

[Dave Westburg]

Here's the finished product. When the wings are glued together before mounting you can mount them much lower on the hook. Another tip is to line up the natural curve in the peacock heart with the curve of the wing. Takes some fiddling but can be done. These flies are good to go if we ever get a break from the rain...

 

[Speydragon]

What type of glue do you use? CA?

 

[Dave Westburg]

What type of glue do you use? CA?

Glue is quite a subject among Classic New England streamer tiers. Sharon Wright recommends Anglers Corner Wet Cement. I use whatever I have - Wapsi head cement, Flexament, Hard as Hull...It doesn't hurt if the cement is a little thicker than normal. Don Bastian uses Elmers Rubber Cement. Here's a detailed article on cementing wings.

Rubber Cementing Streamer Wings

OK folks, I thought I would share an update on the use of Rubber Cement, Elmer’s specifically, for use on cementing streamer wing components together as pioneered by Carrie Stevens in the lat…

donbastianwetflies.wordpress.com

Gluing the wing before tying it onto the fly is supposed to keep the wing sitting close to the hook shank which makes the streamer look more like a fish.

 

[Speydragon]

TY Dave and thanks for the link!

 

[Denwor54]

Thanks for posting Dave, I had a phase we’re all I fished were grey ghosts, lord iris, muddy iris for like two years in the mid to early eighties. I would tie the wing section in hand with thread and then tie them in all all once. I hand a customer that would order 5 dozen grey ghosts every year and I would prep the wings and hackle tips. And I would tie the body’s and then attach the pre tied wings and they were pretty efficient to produce.

 

[Dave Westburg]

Here are some Grey Ghosts waiting for a swim.



The Lord Iris is one of those flies I want to tie and fish but never have. Haig-Brown talks about the Lord Iris in his January chapter in A River Never Sleeps.

As an aside, I bought a barrio 7/8 switch line to fish with my 10' 7 weight spliced bamboo sharpes. Tried it today in the yard. It's a delight. Nice roll and spey casts by itself or with a sinking polyleader. Am planning to take it out for bull trout once the rivers drop and clear.