New Fly-Tying Materials
Bestco sells a metal underbody for crab patterns and a metal Mother of Epoxy body called MO Bodies. The Crab Bodies and MO Bodies have grooves on the top to insert the hook. According to Bestco’s Stuart Dickens, dumbbell eyes used as weight can make crab patterns go off balance when retrieved. His Crab Bodies won’t wobble unnaturally and they make good platforms for building crabs of Velcro, furry foam, or leather and are a nice form for tubing bodies. MO Bodies are in the traditional Mother of Epoxy shape. They come gold- or silver-plated and can be painted or colored if needed. Colored duct tape is a quick way to change the MO’s color. Add your favorite tail and you’re done. When assembling MO and Crab Bodies, the hook shank needs to be covered with a thick thread and then epoxied or super glued into the slot. Spiral wound rod wrapping or sewing thread gives the best bond. The hook should fit snugly before gluing. Sculpin heads are only one of the freshwater uses. Creative tiers will find other uses.
Fishy Pete’s Eco Bodies are a series of hooks with heavy molded bismuth body forms that come in different sizes and shapes for mayfly nymphs, caddis, damsels, scuds, and dragonflies. The weighting is designed to make the hook swim inverted, which can help resist snagging. Angler’s Workshop imports English Thorax Body Leads, which can be crimped onto the hook for a similar effect. They come in different sizes, but only one shape.
Foam
Foam fly-tying products keep expanding. Many of the new items save labor and time. Rainy’s Flies and Supplies has a number of new products for 2002. In the past, colored foam parachute posts were made of painted-over white foam, which stiffened the foam and left a white top when cut to size. This year the parachute posts are made of brightly colored foam and come in many different colors. Gorilla Bodies are laminated Chernobyl-style foam bodies with segmentation cut into them. Skidder Popper bodies are round cylinders, which can be used whole or cut to shape, and come in a wide range of solid or striped multicolors. They range from panfish size (1/4 inch) to a 1-inch offshore model. Art Deco Poppers are 3/4-inch and 1-inch foam cylinders with light bellies and dark tops. Both the large Skidder Popper and Art Deco can also be bought as tube-fly kits that include predrilled holes. Precut foam discs are perfect for Harrison Steeve’s Disc flies, and Rainy uses them on her Shrek bass slider.
Commotion, Edgewater’s new popper body, wiggles, pops, and leaves a huge bubble trail. The bodies fit size 2 through 4/0 Mustad 34011 hooks. Edgewater also added dark-backed, light-bellied popper heads to their extensive popper line.
To complement the popularity of Chernobyl flies, Rocky Mountain Dubbing has added Chernobyl Ant and Hopper kits to their line. The kits include perforated 2-mm foam sheets in different colors and widths for the bellies, backs, and indicators, as well as matching rubber legs.
Hot Glue
Hot-glue flies have become standard patterns, and glue colors are expanding to meet demand. Montana Fly Company added tying materials to their fly selection and along with hot-glue guru Doug Brewer has introduced a full range of pearlescent glue sticks perfect for flats flies and baitfish imitations. These sticks are available in the larger 3/8-inch size. Hareline carries a wide range of colors, including one that glows in the dark, in their 3/16-inch glue sticks. When using different color glues, it can be helpful to have multiple glue guns. Otherwise, you can “rinse” your gun with cheap clear glue sticks until the previous color is gone.
Rubber
Montana Fly Company’s Spandex legs include a tip-dyed version called Hot Tip Tentacles that provide a more durable alternative to the fire-tip silicone legs. They also have manufactured yellow and black round rubber in their Centipede Legs; hopefully more colors will come. They look great on crabs and hoppers. [Watch for Scott Sanchez’s article on rubber legs in an upcoming issue. The Editor.]
All these options should keep you busy at the bench for some time. Hopefully, this introduction will speed up your process of new material selection. Take a look at some of the manufacturers’ websites for more ideas, and have fun experimenting.
Scott Sanchez is the wholesale manager for Dan Bailey’s Fly Shop. He lives in Livingston, Montana.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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