My new Adams pattern

On Feb 2, 9:42 pm, "Da" wrote:
This is my new adams pattern. Here is the picture linkhttp://www.versacorp.cn/picImg/Adams-Big.jpg . Wish the pattern could
bring some encouragements but not teasing.

Hook: 539 8#
Thread: black
Wings: grizzly hackle tips tied over the body
Tail: grizzly hackle barbs
Body: lavender floss
Hackle: grizzly hackle tip

Maybe the hook I use is a little bigger. I saw most of other tie with
10-16 hooks. But I think the 10-16 hooks are very small. So what are
you comments?

It looks handsome, but I think you'll find that your hackle is far too
large, and probably too soft. In my experience, the Adams sits on the
water in a certain way: perched on top of the surface tension by the
bottom of the hackle, the hook, and the tail. The trick is twofold:
first to ensure that your fly is light enough (hence the smaller
hook), and the hackle and tail stiff enough to support the weight. And
secondly to ensure that the hook sits right in the surface film. If
the hackle is too long, the hook will try to be suspended above the
water, which means one of three things will happen:
a) the weight of the hook and fly will cause the tail to poke through
the surface, resulting in a fly sitting in the emerging nymph
position, which is not what an Adams is meant to look like
b) a stiff hackle might break through the surface film and the fly
will waterlog and sink quickly
c) the hackle will bend, which will again result in too much hackle in
touch with the water and the fly will again break through the surface,
waterlog and sink.

If the hackle is too short (or the tail too short) so that the hook
sits too low, it will break the surface tension and your fly will sink
very quickly.

Check out this pictu http://www.visi.com/~mpv/FlyFishing/...AdamsFOTM.html
If you draw a line from the bottom of the hackle to the tip of the
tail, it just grazes the hook. That way, the hook, tail and hackle
all share the weight of the fly and help it sit on top of the water.

Other than that, it looks like a good start. Keep the tail fibers more
bunched, and try to get the wings longer than the hackle on top.

Just my $.02
--riverman