Purple spey fly

[Mike Cole]

I am a rookie at fly tying. I started tying this past March and have been working on different types of flies. I recently took a shot at tying up spey flies. I saw the Purple October on this site and decided to try it with the materials I had. Here is the result.

[johnjarosz(jj)]

cole...rookie or not, that's a nice tie. That purple head sure is a different twist. Never seen one that color before. Keep tying,man. they only get better.

[Frank Swarner]

Very nice hairwing Cole. That will be a good one to have in the box this fall!!

[Nick Pionessa]

not bad at all, even got two ribs going. the proportions are good and a solid color combo too.

[DaveSiejka]

that dog will hunt for sure.

[JoeSperanza]

Looks really good, heres a tip to gettin really tiny heads with hair wing flies, also makes them more durable. Tie in the hair in small sections- an example for your fly is tie in a small bunch before the purple hackle, tie it pretty taught and apply a drop of head cement, let dry And trim, then wrap you purple hackle and add another small group of hair, make sure the tips match the pervious clump, tie down and cement and cut, now tie in your throat and then the final small clump, wrap it down with 2-3 turns of thread and put a small drop of cement and let it soak into the hair, let it get tacky then you trim the hairs at an angle to shape the head then you can form a really small head. This also makes the fly really durable cause the hair used for hair wings is usually pretty slick and just pulls out, especially when tied in one large clump. It takes a little trial an error to figure out the method and how much hair to use in each clump but once you do, you can finish a hair wing with a out 10 wraps of thread with a wing that will not pull out. Keep going, you're already off to a great start

[Mike Cole]

Thanks for the tip Nanook. I was working on tying some up over the weekend and will give your suggestion a try when I tie up some more.