Dumbbell Eyes Test - Fly Tying Edu

Dumbbell Eyes Test - This video tests the location of dumbbell eyes tied on flies. I test under and over the hook shank with several conditions including a water test. This video might help beginning fly tiers understand the effect dumbbell eyes have on a fly depending on tie in location.

[@FlyCarpin]

I like your video. Pretty cool. I have spent allot of time studying this kind of thing from a physics standpoint - hook up is kinda my thing. So the reason that the story changed with the tippet attached was that you change your center of pressure from drag relative to the location of your center of gravity. Without tippet the hook point creates a drag center of pressure closer to the hook point than the shank providing a parachute that is above the eyes regardless of if they are on top or bottom of the hook - so it goes hook up fairly reliably. Once you add the tippet it moves the center of pressure for drag way closer to the hook shank and that is why it goes on it's side - the drag is below the eyes. Try it again with a down-turned eye and you will find that the difference between with and without tippet gets reduced allot. Which is interesting but once you add material everything changes. Now you have a center of pressure for drag as the fly drops based on where the material attaches to the fly (if dropping and not being swam) AND for many materials you also have a center of bouyancy, especially for rabbit zonker strips. If you can make the center of drag AND the center of bouyancy closer to the hook point than the center of gravity then you get a really stable fly. For example, on your goblin sculpin if you were to switch to a down-turned eye to move the center of drag of the tippet higher, and also latch down the tail of that goblin sculpin fly part way up the hook bend to raise the center of bouyancy and possibly try and keep the material in the head on the eye-side of the shank to a minimum and I bet it would NEVER spin in that jet. Sorry if that is too much info - your video got me interested.

[@BozemanCreative]

+Fly-Carpin, Thanks for the comment. What are you saying makes a lot of sense; Ihave learned a lot about hook point up vs down since I made that video. Your information on strait vs downturned eye has me thinking. Really good stuff! Thanks for your feedback.

[@handcannon1388]

One very important consideration that you didn't cover is the occlusion of the hook gap. Tying the eyes inside the hook gap decreased hooking potential dramatically. If the goal was to make a heavily weighted fly ride hook down, a better option would be to weight the entire hook shank concentrically with tape or wire, and dress the fly more heavily atop the shank. More drag above, and slightly more weight (from the bend and point of the hook) below would likely make it ride hook point down without negatively impacting hooking potential to any great degree.

[@ronlee7261]

handcannon very well SAID

[@mark2727]

Excellent demonstration! Thank for posting.

[@aegiDiusMrChef]

that's a nice video ;) Gives much more understanding for tying when making flies.. tested this my self in the moment for perch-minnows

[@frizellculley1238]

I found you a video to have a lot of good information in it. I also see one had a hook pointed up one had a hook pointed down with the eyes on the on the shank not in the eyelid of the hook. Thank you...

[@mohavedweller3273]

And now I know where I've been going wrong with my craw patterns, thanks bro for the insight!!!

[@flytyer2368]

Eyes on top will create a “swim” (swimming) fly where the fly will be oriented the way you see it in the vise, when retrieving it. Eyes under the shank will create a “jig” style fly and as shown will ride hook point up. There are also a number of variables related to different materials which were not tested, that will impact on the fly’s performance. Gunnar Brammer has an excellent illustration concerning eye placement on his Seasoned Geezer fly pattern tutorial.

[@joabe_cesar]

1000º Subscriber! Congrats, mate!

[@bobbertheclown2907]

great demo I wondered if I was putting my eyes on the right side. thanks.

[@kevinjtoner]

Interesting video. Thanks for posting!

[@SasquatchTX]

The eyes have to be heavy enough to offset the weight and balance of the hook bend & point plus materials if the goal is to ride point up. Of couse tying to a leader effects how the fly rides as well. Unless the intended presentation is bottom crawling, how a fly lands is far less important than how it rides being swung or stripped through water. Material selection and placement is as important for this as weight, type, and placement of eyes or beads.

[@MTtyer]

I take a small triangle file....file a small indention between the eyes and you can get them really close to centered on the shank. Just food for thought...

[@jacobstarr9010]

One thing you need to consider is that you would never use 4X tippet for a clouser minnow. Whenever I’m fishing clousers I use anything as large as 0.015” tippet all the way down to 0.010” depending on the size of the fly. I feel a more realistic representation would be to use the appropriate tippet for the hook. Otherwise good video.

[@Flyrodder68]

Im sure im not telling you anything you dont know ..but good bye hook gap when underneath...cool experiment though..thanks for posting

[@badneed]

Very cool! Thank you!

[@FattyMateo]

Kinda went off the rails here. Why did we go from comparing eyes in different positions, to eyes in different positions with tippet, but no eyes in different positions dressed the same? That would have been the absolute confirmation. Like tie a clouser exactly the same, just change the eye position. I think we already know that one will ride hpu and one hpd, but it would have been cool to see you finish the experiment to its logical end🤷‍♂️

[@PRACERZ]

Great testing , thanks !!

[@MayheM_72]

I've always wondered thy the "right way" is for the point to ride up. I believe it would be a better experiment with bucktail or feathers on the hooks, because it wouldn't fall as fast, and it would have a chance to fall more naturally. If I'm making a tiny streamer (size 8 aberdeen hooks, for example) I usually use bead chain eyes so the point rides down. I don't feel like the tiny eyes would overcome the weight of the hook. It's just how I tie them, but people tell me I didn't wrong. I still catch fish, so how wrong can it be? LOL

[@fillmorecorpus9102]

At 5:45 you explain that the eyes are down, however they are still mounted on the top of the hook shank, this seems to be a similar case when you add the first fly. Is this all correct?

[@ronlee7261]

placing the dumbbell eyes below or in the curve could cause the fish to mish the hook completely. A lot of fish are missed that way

[@user-ni4yt5bd8z]

Полезное видео... Спасибо!

[@martinelosegui1134]

exelente video muchachos!!!!!

[@badm.d]

it was exactly 50/50 for eyes on top

[@lukejankauskas1930]

+Bozeman Creative What vice is this?

[@BozemanCreative]

It is a Dyna-King Professional

[@denofearthundertheeverlast5138]

test is invalid...there is no body to control sinking, and it only landed on its back after it hit the hard glass bottom and rebounded, try that on sand bottom.

[@christophercook723]

Have you got a degree in the F in obvious. It will make a difference depending on the knot as a lefty loop causes a different action. Also holding the line so close probably makes a difference to the action. How you tie the fly will affect the drag. This gravity phenomenon is well known.

[@BozemanCreative]

Keen observation christopher

[@Doc.Holiday]

A very large eye for the size of hook and no dressing. I must hand it to him. 48k views. Nothing here means anything.

[@tedhaas8440]

So what size fly rod / fly line would you use to throw a fly with 7/32 eyes?

[@BozemanCreative]

+Ted Hass, I would use a 6wt or bigger.