MacDonald Hairwing Salmon Fly

[kenmorrow]

My family ancestry lies in the MacDonald Clan of the Scottish Highlands. And the fly pictured here is the first Atlantic salmon fly I have ever attempted. To be precise, you're looking at my second shot at it. I forgot the beard hackle on the first one.

The MacDonald Hairwing is an old salmon fly pattern adapted to express the family tartan, a practice that is not uncommon in Scotland. I've tied the MacDonald Hairwing salmon fly here with bucktail as the tail and wing, the body is mohair wool yarn palmered along the shank of the salmon hook. The beard is a heron substitute. So no herons were harmed in the making of this fly. I don't think the sheep minded the haircut, either. And the poor deer who contributed their bucktail hairs were already dead either way. So at least I'm recycling. I do what I can.

And for the astute observer who might be wondering: yes, I tied this big ole salmon fly using the midge jaws on my Peak Rotary Vise. It held the hook just fine, but I did have to crank the vise jaws nearly all the way open and then clamp the cam down on it. You probably shouldn't do this. But being on the Peak Pro Tying Team, I thought I should test the extremes of the equipment. So this is where the disclaimer about the professional driver on a closed track would go if this were a car commercial.

The MacDonald tartan salmon flies should feature the red and green prominently with a blue accent in between. In all of them I have seen the red is used for the tail. Some use the green or blue for the beard, but many use black. But when tying salmon flies, the big "rule" is to not change the way the shank is wrapped. And for the MacDonald salmon flies, they all have a very simple black yarn body.

Don't hold your breath for the full dressed version of the MacDonald tartan salmon fly tied by me. It is not coming soon to a computer monitor near you! I have a rule about not tying flies I wouldn't fish. And the MacDonald tartan fly fully dressed has a married wing of four separate color bands. Were I to succeed at tying a reasonable facsimile of such a contraption, I guarantee you it would not go anywhere near the water. Therefore, I won't even attempt it. I will leave that to others who actually enjoy such artistic forms of self-inflicted agony. I tie flies because I fly fish. I do not fly fish because I tie flies.

[troutman]

Nice read and Fly Ken..... I can't wait to be blessed by your presence

[kenmorrow]

Thanks, troutman.

For anyone who may be wondering...stacked hairwings are an important part of saltwater fly tying. So let me provide a tip about the way to get the proper results without losing your mind.

First, start further back from the eye of the hook than you probably think you should. Use less hair than you think you should. Set the first color of hair against the shank slightly toward you instead of right on top. Now make a few loose wraps and then secure with STRAIGHT UPWARD pressure on the thread on the near side of the shank...slowly. Be careful not to flare the hair. It should lay down along the shank. The hair should have rotated to directly on top of the shank. If not, adjust with your fingers.

Now move slightly forward for the next color. Repeat the process from above, being careful not to allow the colors to blend. This means your pinch fingers must be moved in a deliberate, minimalistic, and delicate way. Don't forget: use less hair than you think you should! If you are only using 2 colors (most saltwater flies only have 2), then you're finished. But most salmon flies have 3. If you want to get really fancy, you can add a layer of flashabou or crystal flash between the 2 colors of a typical saltwater hairwing fly to enhance it...or even on top if you use the same color of flash as the top color of hair. Personally, I like to put it in between.

Now you adjust for the desired flare while building the thread head. Begin with loose wraps just tight enough that they don't get sloppy. This is especially important as you move back to the exposed hair. Once you have a base layer of thread, work back to the eye and increase pressure just a bit to begin to flare the hair. When you achieve the desired result, don't add pressure. In fact, let off a bit. Now finish the thread head. Cut off thread.

Finally, apply head cement. I always use Zap-a-Gap. And you will want to get just the tiniest bit on the exposed hair right behind the thread head if you want truly durable hairwing flies. DO NOT touch the hair in any way during or after application until the ZAG dries! (about 2-3 minutes) Use ZAG very sparingly. You're going to epoxy this thread head anyway.

I use ZAG for 3 reasons:

1. It is formulated specifically for fly tying materials and molecularly fuses with a wide variety of natural and synthetic materials without adding any pressure.

2. It sets in about 10-20 seconds, depending on the materials and environment. And dries in about 1-3 minutes (unless you use way too much).

3. Having nearly the consistency of water, it is extremely easy to apply and penetrates deeply into materials...often to the shank of the hook (which it will also bond with). Thus, on very delicate flies like trout flies you don't have to worry about smashing anything when using ZAG.

[3spots]

Very nice article and history lesson Ken! I was glued to the commentary (I was ZAGed to it. Haha.). I'm not a fly guy, yet, but you make it very interesting!