Jacques Herter dry flies

[troutchaser]

Is anyone familiar with the Jacques Herter tying method? He recommended the head and wing be tied at the bend of the hook rather than at the eye. The arguments given is that the hackle will support the heavier end of the fly much better and that it will hide the point.

I haven't tied or fished any of these, but it has roused my curiousity. Any thoughts?

The difficulty I see with this tying method is trying to palmer hackle inside the bend without knicking the stem on the point.

[jdmidwest]

I have tried tying that style several years back. An article came out with an inverted hook style that I liked better but never used either to any extent. Basically you tyed the extended body fly upside down and the point of the hook rides up above the water line. Waterwisp flies are tyed in that style but the hackle is in back like the Herter style. Waterwisp flies are available thru several vendors.

[Steve Smith]

I wanted to try and tie some Waterwisp patterns, but they use a special hook and won't take orders for less than $50. I don't want to buy $50 worth of hooks just to try their pattern.

[troutchaser]

Sounds like way too much trouble.

[jdmidwest]

The Water Wisp is basically a parachute fly tied at the bend of a hook instead of at the eye. As far as the special hook, a straight eye should work as long as the bend is open enough. It never hurts to experiment with a pattern.

[Jeremy Hunt]

I got into these flies when they first came out and found out they aren't worth all the trouble to tie them. I really didn't have much luck on them. They would take a elk hair caddis or any dry fly for that matter before they would have anything to do with those waterwisp flies. I don't think they look right to the fish. I also missed fished on the hook set quite a bit more than a normal tied one. That's just my two cents. I gave them up a long time ago.

They look good and it teaches you a new way to tie so that's what got me interested in the whole thing.

jh