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Jimmie,
When tying dry flies on patterns that are small 18 and under that only use one hackle I strip the side of the barbs so that when I wind the feather on the hook the concave side of the feather faces the eye. If the fly is going to get two hackles tied in I wind one with the concave forward (first) and one facing back. The two hackle fly would be something like an Adams or Gray Fox etc. these are generally larger than a BWO or blue quill and need a bit more buoyancy.
Having the hackle (single feather) facing forward helps keep the barbs standing up against the drag of current and the drag created when you lift it for a cast. To aid in keeping the barbs under control during finish work I either wet the index finger and thumb of the free hand and stroke / hold the fibers back while building the head or make a hackle guard. To make a hackle guard take a heavy stock business card and punch a hole about 3/4" in from the edge with your dubbing needle, then cut a slice to the hole with your scissors, to use it, slip it over the thread and slid it over the eye of the hook. This will hold the hackle back away from the whip finish process. There are hackle guards for sale but when I need one I just do as I have described with a match book or business card. Let me know if this works for you,
Ard
Went out this morning with the idea of cleaning up in Fluke. Zero! Total wipe out, not even a short. The morning tide was an incoming tide, which is never really that good for this area but usually if you work at it you should do alright; but not today. I suspect there are going to be a lot of unhappy fluke fishermen this weekend trying to come home with supper. Not sure why the sudden Lord's Point fluking drop off happened. There were several draggers working the area but even when I fished areas they couldn't drag in, the results were still the same. The only thing that saved the day were scup and several schools of Taylor Blues that were tearing things up a bit. Very easy to limit out on these small bluefish as they were hitting anything thrown at them. They were regurgitating 3 inch spearing. Hooked a small Blackfish at Red Reef and a huge bass followed him up to the surface. Never tried chunking at Red Reef but it apparenty does hold large bass; just something to keep in mind for future reference. I wish every angler, fishing Lord's Point for Fluke, good luck this weekend as I suspect you are going to need it.
