For years, in articles and fly tying classes, I have been emphasizing the advantages of an unorthodox method of hackling dry flies. It involves winding hackle on a bias to give the fly a wide stance. I called this the "sawbuck effect".

After twenty winters of conducting a fly tying course for adults and using the sawbuck as a simile to graphically (or so I thought) get across this idea. I was startled recently, when a pupil asked "what's a sawbuck"?

In the discussion that followed, it turned out that only one pupil, an older man, knew. My confidence in the simile was shaken.

Obviously, in this age of central heat, a lot of people reach adulthood without even a nodding acquaintance with a sawbuck, or a bucksaw either, for that matter.

I explained that a sawbuck was an X-shaped device, common a few years ago, that was used to support logs or tree limbs at a convenient height while they were being sawed or "bucked" by hand into stove-wood lengths.

I also mentioned that the X-shape was the reason ten-dollar bills were sometimes called sawbucks. They all knew, of course, that "X" is the Roman numeral for ten.

It still seems to be an apt term for describing this way of hackling a fly, and at least for the purpose of this article, it will be used as a name for flies constructed in this manner.

"Sawbuck" is not a fly pattern, only a method of hackling. Any dry fly can be constructed sawbuck fashion.

Conventional dry flies have wings that are well forward, close to the hook eye. Their hackle is wound compactly at right angles to the hook shank and tight against the wing. They are supported on the water by both hackle and tail.

With them, hackle size is very critical to alighting upright and floating properly. Also, bunched so closely, the hackle picks up moisture readily and is hard to dry by false casting.

As dry flies usually float head first down stream, these tight clusters of hackle can hide most of the fly from waiting fish. Body and wings are effectively concealed.

Some tiers try to correct this by cutting a wedge shaped section from the fibers under the hook. This makes the fly sit lower on the water so it loses the dainty, ready-to-take-off appearance it has when riding along on its hackle tips. Also, it often seems less attractive to the fish.

Sawbuck flies, on the other hand, have wings placed well back on the hook, about half-way between the eye and point, which makes for better balance. The hackle is wound close to and ahead and behind the wings, but obliquely so that the fibers project at about a 45 degree angle from the hook-shank.

On these flies, hackle wound back of the wings is canted so the top fibers are tipped well away from the wing and those on the bottom extend toward and slightly beyond the hook eye. That wound ahead of the wing slants forward on top and backward on the bottom.

If done properly, the result is a sawbuck like stance that makes the fly cock and ride as jauntily on rough water as on calm.

The same amount of hackle that would, if applied in a conventional manner, block the fish's view of the fly, won't interfere with seeing body or wings from any angle when wound like this. A full-hackled sawbuck fly will appear quite sparsely hackled when seen from below and resemble a living insect much more closely.

In addition, the spread out hackle tips support and float a fly high and dry.

Often one will alight and ride the current without the tail ever touching down. Larger hackle feathers can be used and the fly will dry more quickly when false cast.

Sawbuck flies are tied much the same way as conventional dry flies except for wing positioning and winding hackle.

Clamp a light wire hook in a tying vise and cover the hook shank with fly head cement. Starting at the eye, spiral tying thread the length of the shank and half-hitch at the start of the bend. Coat this winding with cement.

Select a few stiff hackle fibers for a tail and secure them with a couple of thread winds and a half-hitch at the rear of the hook. The tail should be about the same length as the whole hook.

Secure the body material where the tail is tied on, but do not form the body yet.

Spiral the tying thread ahead to a point half-way between the hook point and eye, half-hitch and cement. This is where the wings will be.

Place the wing material on the shank with the tips extending out past the eye. Make a couple of wraps of tying thread over this. Inspect and adjust for length, then half-hitch and cement the knot. Dry fly wings should be about the length of the hook shank.

Lift the wings and wind thread ahead of them to hold them upright and half hitch. Make a turn back of the wings and half-hitch again. Cement the wing base and windings thoroughly. Dry flies land and float more naturally if the wings slant forward slightly.

Now, cut off excess wing butts and wind the material to form a body and tie off just back of the wings. Cement this knot.

Select two hackle feathers with stiff shiny fibers from one and a half to two times as long as the hook gap. Using a scissors, trim the webby fibers from each side of the stems at the butts. If you leave short stubs along each side, the thread and cement will get a more secure grip when they are tied on. Stroke the fibers so they extend at right angles to the stems.

Hold the two hackle feathers back to back and parallel to the hook shank with the tips projecting out past the hook bend. Make a couple of wraps of thread around their trimmed butts and the hook back of the wings then two wraps and a half-hitch directly ahead of the wings.

Grasp one hackle tip and, winding on a bias so the fibers stick out at a 45 degree angle from the hook, make one turn back of and the next turn ahead of the wings. Repeat until the feather is used up. Tie off ahead of the wing and trim away excess tip.

Do this with the second feather. Wrapping with a zig-zag motion will help keep from winding down previously wound hackle. Don't try to wrap both feathers at once. If you do, one will be loose.

Now pick out any wound down hackle fibers, form a fly head, finish with a whip knot and cement the head liberally.

Place the fly on the table and look at it. You will be amazed at how well balanced it is. The chances are, it will sit there on its hackle tips with the tail extended well above the tabletop. It will alight and ride this way on the water too.