Jan's Flies

Jan Spencer
Recently I was given a book on tying paraloop flies. Being an admirer of parachute flies I became quite fascinated with the paraloop method. I had seen a couple examples of the tie but hadn't really taken a close look as there always seemed to be another project on my mind. The basix paraloop is certainly not difficult to tie, the way this method is done makes a lot of sense in its ability to float.
Instead of having a hackle like a parachute fly it has an all over effect much like a human crew cut hair cut, so to me this would trap air amongst the hackle fibres.

Taking my first few paraloop flies to the river gave great anticipation as to how well they would float. They are dressed very lightly in the body department and only with very few tail fibres to keep the weight down.
My paraloop was dressed with a reasonable amount of hackle and all was in place for my big moment. The fly was exceptional; it floated and sat well. The pattern represented a red spinner, a good fly for this time of year.
The extra equipment to tie this fly is a gallows tool which is attached to the fly tyer's vice. This tool is available from good fly tying stores.

• Paraloop Red Spinner.
• Hook - Size 12 light gauged hook.
• Thread - Orange.
• Tail - Pheasant tail feather fibres dyed hot orange.
• Rib - Light gauge copper wire.
• Hackle - Hot orange grizzle hackle.

1. Wind thread two thirds along shank. Place three pheasant tail fibres in for tail, continue on with thread toward the end of the hook shank, stop before the bend.
2. Tie the rib in firmly and bring thread two thirds of the way back along the shank. Wind rib to this point making nice even turns, tie down and cut away excess rib.
3. Now with thread, hook it over the hook on the gallows bringing it back to the hook shank; make a couple of turns around shank, you now have a loop.
4. Tie in one dyed hot orange grizzle feather, cut away excess hackle stem. Now proceed to wind the hackle up the post taking the same distance as the post is to the hook eye. Each turn needs not to be touching the previous one, so the turns can be fairly well separated. When this distance is covered, wind the hackle back down the post. Pull the hackle top forward being sure not to trap too many hackle fibres, tie down firmly.
5. Remove post from the gallows, hold firmly between fingers. Pull forward over the eye of the hook and tie in firmly behind the eye of the hook. Cut away excess past material. Make sure eye area is clear of fibres.

This is a very basic tie, there are many other useful methods using the paraloop method.