Learn Fly Tying for Beginners to Intermediate

Partridge and Orange

The Greenwells Glory

Welcome to Lesson 7.

Today we will be explaining how to tie wet flies and spider patterns, the old standard, partridge and orange popular in the north country and the Greenwells Glory, which is more universal, and has also stood the test of time. You will find them both easy to tie and well worth a place in the box of river fishers.

The Partridge and Orange has only two materials, the hackle and the tying silk. The hackle is from the back of the old english grey partridge. The ideal hackles do not have distinct brown bar across the top but those with a lesser bold bar are acceptable and you will find that most commercially sold packs have a mixture. If you want the best go out and shoot your own. Only joking. There is another similar grey hackle on the partridge plumage which is well worth using and can be used for the partridge and yellow.

The older school of fly tyers always laboured that hackles on spider patterns had to be very sparse. To do this you strip the fibres off one side of the hackle before you tie it in. To do this correctly lie the hackle on top of the hook with curved side of the feather uppermost, grasp all the fibres on the side away from you and peel them gently off to the stem. Tie in the hackle as shown on the video clip and wind round the hook 2-3 turns and tie off at the head.

You will find some tyers who recommend tying the hackle in by the point. By all means try this once you have got the hang of doing the basics, but beware, the points of partridge hackles are very fragile. You can (and I often do) actually tie the hackle in whole and give it 2 turns and tie off.

The brown partridge can also be used for the march brown spider, the partridge and yellow and damsel nymphs.

The Greenwells Glory has only three materials, the hackle, the tying silk and the fine gold braid or wire for the rib. The hackle is from a hen cape. You can either buy a full cape or buy a packet of hackles. The disadvantage of a cape is the relatively small number of hackle of a size but it does give you a better selection of sizes but they are usually more expensive. If you want to tie a dry pattern you will have to use a cock cape, it has stiffer fibres and floats better but the dressing is the same. The book states that the tying silk should be primrose and well waxed, (use beeswax), because it transforms the colour to light olive.

Hooks wet fly sizes 12 / 14 / 16.

Once you have mastered these two all you need are the various hackles to open up a new world of spider patterns.

Hope you enjoy the lessons. Beware it has been said that fly tying can become addictive.

Regards
David Cammiss and The Team