Palmering a Hackle

Step by Step's

Step 1

With the fly ready for palmering

For Example : The body is prepared, the wire or tinsel tied in, the hackle tied in and thread at the eye.

Wind the hackle down the hookshank in open and even turns using either gripping between your finger and thumb or using hackle pliers.

Step 2

When you reach the lower end of the hookshank with the hackle ie. Where the tinsel or wire is tied in, keep hold of the cock hackle with your left hand using finger and thumb or hackle pliers and hold the tinsel or wire with your right hand. Keep the hackle taught horizontally and wind a rib with the tinsel back up the hookshank trapping the palmered hackle in as you go. It helps if you move the tinsel from side to side as you wind on the rib, this prevents having as many hackle fibres trapped under the winding. If you still find that too many hackle fibres are trapped , just use a dubbing needle to pick the trapped fibres out.

Step 3

Once just short of the eye with the tinsel or wire, tie off with thread and trim the waste tinsel. Leaving around 5mm from the eye, gives you plenty of room to add a head hackle and neat head.