Making The Charlie Chute Wing Setter by Don Colman

I used to think I was a pretty smart guy. I was also glib with a deep announcer voice, so when I said something, it sounded authentic. But something happened as I got older. I discovered that I got a whole lot smarter if I listened more carefully and kept my eyes and mind open to new ideas.

About that time I met John. I think I called him to buy Kori Bustard, and after about five minutes of conversation, we both found that we had a lot in common over the years of fussing around with fly tying. Over the next few weeks, we spent hours on the phone trying to ?one-up? each other, with questions like, ?how many spools of Herter?s Radiant Floss do you have??, ?Yeah, but do you have lilac?? or ?Is your copy of Jorgensen?s Book a first edition?? After a while it became clear to both of us that we each had more old junk, materials and publications than any human being should be allowed to collect. We stopped trying to impress each other, and became good friends.

There is an old saying about friendship. ?If you have a Hungarian for a friend, you will never need an enemy.? Well, with John as a friend, you will never want for stimulation, new ideas and mind expanding conversations??forget about enemies, because you won?t have time for them. As if that is not enough, John attracts and collects bright, unselfish friends like I collect Hyapatia Lee videos, but that?s another story.

Do yourself a favor and carefully read everything on John?s site. Especially read the Friends section. Punch up every item and take the time to really study the ideas and observations that John?s friends have offered to share. Looking at their flies will give you hours of questioning on how you are presently tying the same patterns or push you into trying something completely new. Trust me, that is only the beginning.

This brings me right back to where I started

I was part of the original Group that was formed in the late 70?s for Atlantic Salmon tiers, and published The Salmon Flyer. John makes several references to that pub and for good reason. What a storehouse of original ideas and concepts about tying Classic Atlantic Salmon Flies. Most of it is still relevant today, modern technology aside. One of John?s references to The Flyer was Issue Ten, in which Charley Chute described a tool he created for helping set married strip wings precisely and perfectly each and every attempt.

Now, tell me you have not fouled up that little process more than few times. We have all been conditioned to believe that this is a most difficult, hit or miss process that requires loads of practice to come near to accomplishing every other time or so. There have been dozens of articles written on the subject, and you are always left prepared to fail. When you did manage to set a pair of married wings reasonably well, you would have to be mad to consider untying them, and resetting them. Right?

Wrong---read on.

I first had the pleasure of watching Charley Chute tie a Black and Gold married wing at the Somerset Tying Show two years ago. With about ten people crowded around, and Norm Hyams pointing a camera with a huge close-up lens in Charley?s face, we all watched without so much as taking a breath, as Charley prepared to set a 28 strip married wing. He reached down and produced an old wooden box and took out a brass tube with a wire loop at one end, and as calmly as you please, proceeded to set the wing perfectly in ten seconds. He looked at his work, mumbled something about wanting it a touch shorter and moved in to untie the wing. Everyone gasped, and with one voice, screamed at Charley not to risk it, and that it was perfect. Out came that tool again, set down on the tie-in spot and Charley simply unwrapped the thread, leaving the wing being held in place on the hook only by the tool. Charley turned and announced to John, who was at the next booth selling dead birds, that it was time to go to lunch and get a drink, not necessarily in that order.

It all came back to me in a rush. That was the tool that I had read about years earlier in The Flyer, and not recognized what it offered. I was not alone. Few had seen it before, and even fewer had tried to make one to see if it could really make setting wings a predictable, repeatable pleasure, not a torture.

Take a moment and carefully read Charley Chute?s brief article, click HERE, and then I will share with you how to make the tool for a couple of quarters.

Did you enjoy the article? I thought so. I recently saw someone selling versions of the tool, a regular size and a jumbo, for $45, and that seemed a bit much. I settled on buying two egg sinkers at Bass Pro, one three ounces and the other seven ounces for under a buck. I got out some heavy stainless leader wire 145# or so, and in fifteen minutes had the two sizes on my table, ready to go.

Look at the picture for the shape you need to bend the wire. It matches Charley?s sketch and is important to follow accurately. Bend a foot of wire in half with a tight curve in the middle with wire bending pliers. The bent wire sticks up about 2-1/4? out of the 1-1/4? sinker, making the whole 3 oz. tool about 3-1/2? tall. Prepare the egg sinker by filing one end flat, and then file or cut out two notches on opposing sides of the flattened hole that runs down the middle of the egg. You will tuck the two ends of the wire in those slots or notches so they don?t stick out and prevent the tool from standing upright on your tying desk. Do all your bending except the two final 90o bends on the ends of the wire. Insert the wire through the top hole in the sinker, pull tight and make the two bends in the wire ends sticking out of the bottom of the egg. Then clip away all but a small stub of wire at each end to hold tightly in the egg. Done properly, the tool will now sit upright, ready to set your wings. The smaller tool works for sizes up to 6/0, and while I don?t tie bigger, the large sinker will work for up to 10/0. If you don?t plan on tying larger than 6/0, save yourself a quarter and only buy one three ounce sinker.

Now learn what I learned. Go back and carefully re-read the article. Charley tells you everything you need to know. He doesn?t exaggerate or over-explain. Just follow all his directions exactly, play around with an old set of married wings on a practice hook, and learn to live without The Fear of Married Wing Failure. Believe me, if a 73 yr. old fart with Parkinson?s can set perfect wings every time, so can you.

This picture shows the tool sitting on my tying table. The framed fly in the background is an old Irish pattern, the Black and Gold, tied and signed by Charley Chute, that I bought a few years ago at Somerset. It reminds me to look around and listen more carefully.


(I am shortly leaving for South America to corner the market on Indian Crow and will report my progress in a future article.)