In tying bunny strip leeches, I am trying for neat, compact heads. I have learned to crowd the head with the strip before tying doing the head wraps, but too many times I end up with a 'bubble' of leather peeking out from the back of the head wraps. I have seen other tyers consistently get nice compact heads with no bubble, so there must be a trick to this.
Here's the latest tying report from the center of Oregon, which is minus a rabbit or two since last we talked.
The procedure I have settled on which is giving me consistently small heads when tying bunny leeches, rabbit strip flies, etc. is the following:
A preface: There are a varying quality of rabbit strips available for sale. A pro tyer friend of mind alerted me to always go through the store packages and compare the hue and saturation of the colors in the packages. This was especially true for chartreuse strips and other difficult colors. Straight cut strips vary widely on the length of the attached hair. Crosscut strips are prone to lack hair density.
One of the keys to consistently tie a small head is the width and thickness of the rabbit strip skin. Up to now, I have been using rabbit strips marketed by Hareline and Shamrock (available at chain stores such as Wally World). However, during my trip to Portland, I stumbled into a truly superior rabbit strip product marketed under their own private label by the Fly Fishing Shop in Welches, Oregon.
These are high quality, thin skinned, densely furred pelts that are cut to only 1/8" width strips. The strips are left attached to a patch on the pelt, and there are 30 to 36 strips 10"-12" in length. The cost is $10.95. You can see a picture of these by going to: <http://www.flyfishusa.com/fly-tying/ rabbit.htm#Packaged%20Cross%20Cut%20Rabbit%20Strips> and scrolling down to Stripped Whole Rabbit Hides. To make a long story longer, these thinner, nicely furred strips really make tying bunny flies easy, not to mention economical.
I palmer the strip up the shank toward the eye, and then crowd the eye with the strip. I do not trim the strip first, which makes working with it easy. I throw two loops of thread just in back of the hook eye and just in front of the rabbit strip. Then I make another turn of thread just in BACK of the strip so that the strip is caught in a choke hold by a loop of thread anchored at the eye. I pull hard on the end of the strip while simultaneously putting pressure on the thread loop, then quickly throw two tight loops of thread in back of the hook eye. That effectively anchors the strip and chokes the width of the strip down to a miminum diameter.
Carefully take sharp scissors and cut the strip at 90 degrees to the shank, making the cut close to the thread while pulling lightly on the end of the strip. I then will catch the point of the rabbit skin about 1/8" back from the hook eye and cinch down with the thread then wrap forward flattening the small exposed nub of rabbit skin. Finish off the head and cement.
Just in case anybody was having the same problem...this works for me.
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
