Many fly tiers I talk to find working with turkey and goose biots frustrating. They can be, but once mastered they make a really slick fly body, and they are a key material in many of my mayfly imitations. There are a few tricks that can keep your blood pressure down, your tying fun and your fly bodies smooth. The most important thing to create is a smooth under body. People that tie classic salmon flies and old school streamers and wets know this game better than anyone. If your under body isn’t smooth, there’s no chance to create a smooth fly body when you wrap over that base. A simple way to achieve a smooth base is to work with the finest thread you can get away with, and to make your thread passes run the length of the under body during each step of the process. Pictured here is the start of a Thorax Dun with only the tail fibers and the dubbing ball that divides them. To establish a smooth base, I started the thread tie in a short distance behind the hook eye and wrapped back to the bend in close, touching thread turns. Next a dubbing ball is tied by spinning a short and tight dubbing ball and stacking the wraps to create diameter and end with an abrupt drop-off. The dubbing ball needs to have a steep drop off rather than end on a taper on the forward side. This creates the wedge to divide the tails and keep the remaining area level. Next I wrap forward to the thorax area in close turns and tie in the tail fibers there. As I wrap back to the dubbing ball, the tail fibers start to flatten and spread and I push them into position with an equal number on each side of the dubbing ball. The last turn of thread is immediately in front of the dubbing ball. The result is a smooth foundation that will ensure the body of the fly I wrap over it will be smooth. Next week I’ll talk about the next steps. Till then, keep it smooth ….. www.ramsayflies.com #Regalvise #DaiichiHook #UniThread
