Parachute problem

[BRY]

When tying small parachutes, say size 20, I have a real problem tying off the head without tying down a good portion of my hackle at the eye of the hook. When I whip finish the fly, I have to trim hackle away from the eye to get tippet through. Is there a trick to this that someone could clue me on?

[BRY]

Actually, my problem is when I tie off the tag end of the hackle after wrapping it around my post. (I should have been more specific, sorry!) This is when I tie down alot of the hackle barbs on the front of the parachute. I dont have any problem with the whip finish tool, it works fine to help build the head for me on small flies. I just hate having to trim so much away from the eye of the hook when the fly is finished. Not sure if it matters to the fish, but I have seen perfect parachutes before and would like to be able to accomplish this as well. Probably time for a good lesson!

[Ouzel]

Try one of these:
Since the parachute style supports (floats) a fly better you can use a smaller size hackle then what is commonly thought for a hook size.
Mount the hackle further back, most parachute flys do allow for it.
Cut a small "V" in the hackle where it meets the eye and don't worry about it :-).

[Jason]

Bry, instead of tying off your hackle up near the eye of the hook, try tying it off on the back side of the post. If you do this, you'll have to make a few more wraps of dubbing around the post area to clean up your fly. You'll have less material build up near the eye so you can have a cleaner whip finish. Like Fanatic said, a little half hitch tool does wonders for cramped tie offs. If you do get a few fibers stuck in your whip finish, don't worry about it. Just clip of the straggling fibers and you're set. The fish don't care either way.

Also, if you keep having problems on your tie off and you're cramping the eye of the hook, try moving the post back just a tad. You're post may be too close to the eye of the hook. Try to leave enough space between the eye and post to finish off you fly. TIE ON!

[jccollier]

Try this....whip finish on the post instead of at the eye. I too had the problem of tying in too many hackle fibers and I saw this method demonstrated somewhere during my research. Dub the thorax and bring the thread back to tie in the hackle. Tilt the vise to place the hook horizontal to the bench. Tie in hackle (hint...use the tag end of the hackle stem to provide extra support for the post..) and advance the thread nearly to the end of your post's thread base. Wrap hackle and whip finish. This method has worked wonders for my tying of parachute patterns as there is no hackle tied near the eye at all. It'll take some getting used to, but it's worth a try. My 2cents........J.