Hey all. Happily tying up some killer bugs. I'm having a little bit of a tricky time keeping the copper thread from breaking - Am I not letting enough slip out as I wrap to keep the wear from accumulating on one spot on the wire? Any tips?

Thanks,
- Albert

My only suggestion would be to have a bobbin dedicated for wire. I tries wrapping off the spool before and broke alot of wire. I went to a bobbin and the problem has almost disappeared for me.

Dale

try cutting a short section of the wire from your spool like say 3 inches and use a hackle plier to wrap that wire to your fly.

I usually cut a short piece and hand-wrap it...a little more wasteful than I might want, but helps to wrap well.

Are you using a ceramic-lined bobbin?

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I wrap the wire directly from the spool. I touch the hook shank with a little super glue, do about five or six wraps of copper wire while holding the tag end and then I break off the tag end and wrap the wire by rotating my vise. If your vise doesn't rotate, let the wire slip through your fingers a bit as you wrap so the same spot on the wire isn't continually bent 360 degrees. If you do use a bobbin holder, you have to do the same thing. Make sure new wire is coming out the end of the bobbon holder so that the same point on the wire doesn't keep getting bent as you wrap.

watch out for twisting the wire if you are not using a rotating vice. if you are rotating the bobbin with wire on it around the fly when tying, the wire is twisting, and weakening. this is where wire on a bobbin and a rotating vice make things super easy.

the low tech way to avoid twist is to cut the wire in small sections and wind by hand as per Chris's post. the shortness will allow any twist to work out before the wire is twisted, once you get the "feel".

Craig