1) Every hackle has a dull side and a shiny side with the hackle fibers having a tendency to lean toward the dull (concave) side. Hold hackle with trimmed area of stem base at an angle against your side of the hook shank in front of wing. Slightly rotate so that dull side is partly facing you. Sometimes it helps to hold hackle between wings to ensure proper angle. Make loose wrap of thread and tighten.

2)This rolls dull side toward hook eye and rolls stem on top of hook shank. Secure with 5 or 6 tight wraps of thread toward eye and leave thread at hook eye.

1) Attach hackle pliers to hackle tip. Make sure the pliers are in line with stem so that when you put tension on hackle, the stem is not bent. If stem is bent, it will be weak at that point and is prone to breakage. Begin start of wrap below hook shank. Make sure there are no hackle barbs sticking out, this allows the stem of hackle to take a set without pinning down any barbs parallel to shank.

2)Make one wrap forward toward eye but be sure to leave enough room for the head. A common mistake beginners make is to crowd the hackle wraps too close to hook eye and when the hackle is completed there is not enough room for the whip finish. This leads to material in eye of hook and it's difficult to get leader through hook eye.

3) Begin wrapping toward wing in evenly spaced wraps. Wraps should be side by side as you progress rearward and evenly spaced. This will help the hackle fibers stay perpendicular to shank and reduce fibers being bent alongside shank where they will get in the way of the whip finish.

4)How many wraps you make will depend on hook size but usually it takes 3 to 5.

5) Make 2 to 3 wraps behind wing.

6) Begin wrapping forward to hook eye. Number of wraps will depend on size of hook.

7)Make sure the wraps are evenly space and you may try moving pliers in a slight weaving motion to prevent trapping of hackle barbs.

7) When you reach eye, hold pliers above shank and forward of eye with right hand and secure hackle with 4 or 5 wraps of thread with left hand. This is done by grabbing bobbin with left hand , go up and over shank then back down other side and let bobbin hang down as you let go and bring your hand back to your side of shank to grab bobbin again and repeat thread wrap. Release hackle tip from pliers and clip excess.

6) Fly should look like this. The reason we tie in and wrap hackle with dull side toward hook eye is to get the majority of the barbs to slant forward. This will keep the balance point of the fly forward and help fly land upright and not on it's face. This is also the reason we only put 2 or 3 wraps of hackle behind wing and the majority in front. This puts the weight of the wing behind the balance point. You are now ready to Whip Finish.