[acercon3]

Hello All

I am back on the fishing scene after a very long absence and am busy putting together some flies for this season. All my previous tying was salmon and seatrout related but now I am hoping to produce some trout patterns and within that some dries.

I have managed to get some small cock hackles of various shades for these dries . In the process of acquiring these hackles I come across the term 'dun' , what does this term mean exactly ?

I have not tied dries before and note that the hackle fibres need to stand more upright. Is there any special technique that I need to employ in order to get this effect ?

[Sandy Nelson]

The term Dun appears in a couple of ways as regards flies.

A DUN is the term for a newly hatched upwing fly, i would imagine this term is used as they flies are often pale pastel shades with dusky coloured wings.

You are probably seeing the word with regard to colour, here it means a neutral brownish grey colour, quite flat and dull. You will see Blue dun, honey dun, dark dun, light dun etc they are all different shades of materials, all of which you will find very useful for dryflies, normally quite soft subtle colours.

As for tying hackles, hard to describe with words, easy to show have a look at http://www.flyfisherman.com/ftb/hwhackle/   

This is pretty good , it shows dry and wet style of hackles.

Sandy

[acercon3]

Hi Sandy


Many thanks for the advice.

I was impressed with the hackling tutorial and will give this method  a go at my next sitting, I think that it will do the trick.