Palmering

riverman wrote:

Yes, thats the correct method, but I keep breaking them that way. I hate
that...gotta get a lighter touch.

FWIW, I tie the hackle in by the tip as well. I tie it slightly
forward of the tail and take a wrap or two of the chenille behind it
before wrappping the chenille forward.

Another thing you could try would be to strip the hackles off one
side of the feather and tie it in that way. It makes for a less-dense
hackle and it's much easier to control that way, IMHO.

On another track...I just tied up my first #12 Red Humpy. Didn't have any
antron for the body, so I sliced up some red marabou and dubbed with
it....that part came out pretty nice. However, getting the 'wings' to sit up
in a nice tight little package was very hard, as they seem to want to spin
out into a fuzzball. And judging the length of deerhair to tie on so that it
makes the wing cases and wings the right length is nutso. My first humpy
looks more like a big grey burdock with a hangover.

Humpies are a true PIA to tie. But, Harry Mason has the tips you
need to know for getting the tail/shellback/wing proportions right:
http://www.troutflies.com/tutorials/humpy/


Chuck Vance (whose humpies look like hairy Quasimodos)