No Hackle Fly Tying Instructions by Charlie Craven 

I remember first reading about this fly in Joe Brooks's Book Trout. Around 1971. He mentioned a few young fly fishers and Fly Tyers in it, Rene Harrop, Dave Whitlock, and of course Doug Swisher and Carl Richards. I never could tie the fly, it usually came out a mess. Mike Lawson said that it doesn't matter to tie and fish the fly. We are so lucky today with all the good instruction that is just a click away. Excellent demonstration and explanation.

Nice tie, beautiful fly. I have tried to tie it, didn't work out too well. One of the real positives about this fly is what Mike Lawson mentioned in his video on this fly: the more split and ratty the wings get in fishing this fly, the better the fish seem to like it. A paraphrase of course, but it's reassuring since quill wings will split. Thanks Charlie, keep tying.

THANK YOU! I have watched Mike Lawson's videos and many others, but this was probably the clearest explanation (and visualization).

We’ve not met, but thank you for showing how this fly is done properly and very well. I had done my own video on the no hackle, and, as usual, your tying puts mine to shame. Awesome!

Love it when you go all ad lib and sweat it out during the performance.....amazing technique, that wing wrap looks like a challenge for sure.

Well done Charlie (standing while slow clapping)! I love that you were able to show the thread path across the slips! Such a helpful piece of information! You feel like you stand a few inches taller when one of these turns out the way it should! Nice work!

Charlie we NEED to see you fish this fly. Looks GREAT, wish I had that much talent.

Well done Charlie. A tough fly to tie. No Hackle is a classic spring creek fly. You mentioned Mike Lawson video which is good. Rene Harrop's Family Ties dvd also does an excellent job of tying the No Hackle. Finding some good quality duck quills is a bit of a challenge if you don't hunt. Many of the commercial quills aren't too great.

I used to think that No Hackle Dun would be your weakest point, yet I was wrong. Your tie is just as beautiful and perfectly balanced as that of Rene Harrop or Mike Lawson. Charlie, you are the Iron Fly Tyer! 👍👍👍

Thank you Charlie for a clear description of how to tie a no hackle fly. I haven't tied one in a long time. I appreciate your clear and precise instructions on how to tie the wings in first which was how I was taught. Thank you again I will use your tips on tying wings in. I to have a collection of various duck and upland bird wings! Thanks again. God Bless n Fish on!

Very impressive. Like all the flies you tie. Love the series some of these flies haven’t been shown being tied in twenty year. I just pulled out my dads streamers he fished on the Ausable in Michigan over 50 years ago. So cool. No one ties those anymore.

Great job.

🎉 KING 👑 CRAVEN ……. Bowing in Admiration and Respect ✊ ✨🎣💫

Damn good one man. Anyone who has successfully tied one of these is either a master or it happened on accident. You are definitely the former and I am definitely the latter. I figure I tie a good one every 4-5 years or so. =]

If you regularly tie no-hackles, you can create a measurement tool for each size wing pair with a ruler, a pair of sewing pins or push pins & a popsicle stick. Measure & mark the exact width of wing fibers you want, use a pin drill to make 2 holes, insert & glue in the pins. You can then use the 2 pins on the stick to separate the wing fibers & cut them off the feather as exact matches. Unfortunately, I lost the sticks in a move & haven’t remeasured & made them again, so I can’t send you the measurements. Viewed from the side, the popsicle tool looks like this: ________|____|

Thank you so much for this one, Charlie!!! Massively helpful!!! Beautiful, as always.

Wow! I'll really need to practice to get that one. You rock Charlie 🪨

Wow! Does this take me back to the Swisher / Richards days and trying to tye this fly without much instruction! Not easy ! Ive seen Mike Lawson's video and I'd like to Thank You for some very good instruction as well! There are some very good tips like the flex cement and seperating the wings a bit more. Thanks for bringing an older Beautiful Fly back to life. Gonna have to try tying this one back up!

Nice one. Interesting techniques, with those thread wraps. Ill stick to tying my wet fly wings, like the butcher family. Using the blues

Was looking forward to this one…….thanks bud…….keep em comin, best videos out there!

Tough one to teach Charlie, good job powering through to get those "bat ears" just right for wily trout.

Beautiful fly!

Simply awesome!!! Thank you.

Well done!

Wow Charlie that’s a beauty this is a tuff one, shout out to Rene Harrop and Swisher and Richards there’s a story there that pre dates Lawson. Rene’s no hackles are unbelievable there is some footage out there of him tying them but Charlie did this justice no surprise

Take a bow Charlie 😜👌

The trick with any duck wing seems to be to use a slip of feather that is much wider than what you would expect on the finished fly. Always had trouble with that.

Amazing tie. By an amazing tier. Tell me if I’m wrong: if you want to catch 6 fish with this fly, you need 6 flies. One and done?

Great tie, as usual. What is the vinyl cement used on the wings? Thanks! 🎣

Charlie, doubt you’ll respond but I’ll ask anyway: are there times/situations where traditional no hackle flies are superior to more “modern” offerings? I’m trying to convince myself there’s no reason to frustrate myself with tying them (beyond the achievement factor) but wonder if this is a fool’s lie.

😲 Ooooohhh

takes some balls to tie that pattern on video with that million times zoomed in lens....thats why there are none tied on video and likes video is old and you cant really see it well...great job..

Superb effort. The real difficulty is getting match feathers 🪶