Will have to do some testing? Iv tied up plenty of crazy charlie style flys for fishing lake edges for trout, and iv always found that the flys will land hook point up, due to the wing and tail strands creating enough drag as the fly falls through the water column that they land hook point up. Not sure its going to be the same with a lot heaver dumbbell eyes however, but I will do some testing and report back.
Must say thinking about it from a mechanical
point of view, I would have thought that the leverage of the hook from the bend
to the point of the hook would be a considerably larger force trying to turn
the hook point down, rather than weather the dumbbells were tied on the top of
bottom of the hook shank?
Ok boys a bit of imperial testing has been performed. I used a very scientific glass pitcher that’s a little over a foot tall was filled with fresh clean Wakatipu water and this was used as my testing apparatus. (Wished id have video'ed it and put it up for all to see now. If i get enough spare time I will)
I
tied up a second fly almost identical to the first fly but with the dumbbell
eyes tied on the underside of the hook.
I wet the fly’s out then dropped them a few times into the pitcher with the
hook point facing downwards. In both
instances the flys flipped over to been hook point up in the first 50-60mm of
water, and then fell with the shank of the hook at about 45degrees from vertical. Both landed
on the bottom with the eye first but settled every time with the hook point
up. So as id expected the wing / tail
created enough drag that the flys should always land with the hook point
up. Obviously this isn’t real world
testing, as there was no leader attached or tides/water movement and the bottom
was a perfectly flat piece of glass, but it’s the best I could do in my living
room.
Plusses
and minuses of the dumbbell eyes either side to the shank? Well it would be obvious that with the dumbbell
been below the shank of the hook, it would make the fly even more stable when
on the bottom than one with the dumbbell above the shank. This way also leaves the hook gape almost completely
exposed. In other words the dumbbell can
creates a very minor restriction for the hook to penetrate if above the shank.
Negatives
are that when sitting on the bottom a dumbbell that’s below the shank makes the
hook point ride slightly up from horizontal to the bottom. This could translate to a slightly lower
hookup rate? But I’m only surmising. Also with the dumbbell eyes above the shank
it helps keep the wing more upright when in the water. The wing naturally is pulled back as the fly
is pulled through the water, so the dumbbell assists in giving the fly a bigger
profile. This been said, you could easily
post tie in the wing to keep it more upright, but how many of us would bother?
So take from this what you will. I’m now not sure as to which way il tie the dumbbell eyes in on my crazy charlie’s. I might tie a few either way and see if I get any noticeably different results when in Aitutaki?
Lindsay wrote: Thanks for that Jaapie I found this article about jig hooks very interesting. http://midcurrent.com/flies/hooks-the-jig-is-up/ "In the last seven to eight years there has been a movement among salty brethren on the left coast toward tying saltwater flies on jig hooks — specifically, jig hooks with 60-degree bends. Now, this movement has grown and spread its way eastward, riding the buzz from a lot of anglers who believe that patterns tied on a 60-degree jig hook are superior." |
Jaapie wrote: just had to cut and paste the address as link was invalid. |
desmofrankie wrote: That's actually a very interesting point you've raised Fraser! |
Quite by accident mate. I just tied up the Charlie and didn’t think too much about whether the dumbbells were on the top or bottom of the shank. Corokid pointed out my mistake. Am I a genius or a fool, that just got lucky?
So seems that its not so much the position of the weight, but more about the weight in relation to the fur/feather as to the way it falls in the water column? If only id discovered this back when studying, I could have written a fluid dynamics thesis on it?? DOWwww
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