Sometimes things go wrong
There are some down sides to tying IOBOs and some down sides in fishing them.
In tying:
-
CDC feathers sometimes exhibit brittle stems at the butt.
- Keep the feathers in a moist environment. I guess a cigar humidor would
be ideal. I simply slightly dampen a small square of paper towel and place it
in the bag with the CDC.
- Be sure to tie in the feather butt so the natural curve of the feather is
up and away from the hook shank. (See step 3 in
tutorial.)
- "Preen" the feather to establish a pre-bent condition (See step 4 in the tutorial.)
-
Sometimes I wind up with the stem showing in my wing.
- You selected a feather that was too long for the hook size.
(See step 1 in the tutorial
- You grasped the CDC tip too far down on the stem with the hackle
pliers.(See step 6 in the tutorial
- You may have selected the wrong "type" of feather.
CDC Types.
-
CDC is too expensive.
- "harvest" your own CDC. CDC feathers are those found on
a duck's back surrounding the preen gland. (Where you see the duck's
bill working when it is preening itself.)
- Buy your CDC in bulk packs like those sold by Spirit River®.
rather then in the packs of 25 feathers.
In fishing:
- After catching a fish my IOBO no longer floats
- True, but it will still catch fish, however you often won't be able to see
it very well.
- Rinse the slimed fly well, blot it dry and false cast it several times to
re-float it. It will never float as well as a new one but it will be visible
and it will catch fish.
- What about all this blotting and drying?
- Use your shirt sleeve, what else is it for?
- Carry a small square of cotton cloth.
- Use an Amadou patch (expensive).
- There's a new cloth called "Wonder Cloth" but it's
un-tested by me.
- Shimazaki® "Dry Shake" is a commercial drying agent that is
reputed to work.
- Frog's Fanny® is another commercial product that will dry a slimed
CDC feather.
- My friend Sue K. buys a product used by archers, by the barrelful,
it works in much the same way as the above.
- Throw it away and tie another; your total investment is about $0.09
for the hook, an infinitesimal amount for thread, $0.15 for a CDC feather and
2 minutes of your time.
- The wing of my IOBO Humpy "pulls out".
- You haven't tied the wing off with enough thread tension.
- Try using a "locking wrap" to tie off the wing.
- Tie the "reversed" IOBO Humpy.
- After catching 4 nice browns and 2 nice rainbows, my IOBO looks like this:
- After catching:
| Four browns like this: |
and two rainbows like this: |
my IOBO looks like this: |
 |
 |
 |
You've got your $0.25's worth of fun, throw it away and tie on a fresh one.
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