So why not tie a 6" wing on a standard tube fly? That way you would get the size and the motion without having to cast the weight and the bulk of an adult rabbit 
A big Runray Shadow or a Clouser minnow type thing springs to mind.
Irvine
Fair questions Irvine.....
So do remember part of this process is to satiate the Dr Jekyll/ Mr Hyde thing that goes on when I get the fly tying kit at this time of year
every year and doesn't necessarily reflect the vaguely normal fly tying process that goes on here in this small part of Inverness-shire for the rest of the season
For me a 6" wing just doesn't work with the materials I
want to work with for the properties they bring to the fly. Sure, I could tie a GWG on a plastic tube that's about the overall length I'm after but just not the sheer physical size (or more likely the
perceived physical size) of fly I want to create once it's
in the water
and wet.
The rabbit has possibly been superseded by finn racoon, we'll see. For me half of the fun is in trying something out for the first time, I know the wound rabbit zonker strip based patterns will require a skagit plus a degree of bravery hitherto largely unseen in my casting to make them 'cast-able' let alone 'fish-able'.
However I have learnt one or two things whilst fixing the relatives of Hazel, Pipkin and General Woundwort to bits of brass, tungsten, aluminium, plastic and copper so I am now considering the virtues of using a method of tying with my choice(s) of material in a way I've not tried before.
No pattern or style of fly is being disregarded in this freakish progress but I see templedog methods as being more likely to produce what I'm after - the clouser is kind of fixed (doesn't pulse, or at least the ones I tie don't
) and sunray types have the overall length but again not the 'presence' I'm after.
Could be that I'm on a kicking to nothing, but the spey plumes have got me scratching a fly tying itch good and proper
H
