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IMO, If you want to use silk for tying, Gossamer is about the best because it is traditional and has been used for many years. If it doesn't matter if you use silk, there are many good tying threads available. I particularly like Uni-Thread, 8/0. It has some great colors, ties easily, and comes in waxed and unwaxed.
Mark
Added: Gosh, yes! Thanks nutman for the reminder! Bodies can be made of the various synthetic flosses. Again Uni makes some very nice floss in great colors.
[quote author=wayneb link=topic=2345.msg18048#msg18048 date=1233682428]
So, What do people use as a substitute for Pearsalls silk???
Wayneb
[/quote]floss my man floss
Waneb,
There is no alternative substitute for Pearsalls Gossamer or Naples silk thread.
It amounts to this.
If you wish to tie many of the traditional soft hackle flies of the past that determine a given shade of Pearsalls, then a substitute is not the same. If you wish to stick to the original pattern
The thread when wet changes color.
There are a couple of the old style flies l use that l will only used Pearsalls, l tried other modern threads, not the same.
Two flies l consider of great importance are the snipe and purple and the greenwell spider, this is a killer fly, so is the partridge and orange and yellow at times.
Same also for Pearsalls marabou floss, there are colors here not available from other sources.
Remember it is not the color you see when the material is dry, it is when it is wet and seen by the fishes eye.
Aaron, you might want to add the Greenwell to your list of lake flies, it can be a killer when the fish are high water surface feeding.
DW
Davy -
Snipe is not all that available here in the US, to my knowledge. Is there a decent substitute for snipe that you can think of? Will a dark partridge feather do?
Brookie,
How many pairs do you want. I have them, also Golden plover.
Also it is not easy to find the correct hackle for the greenweel here, which is a furnace, ginger with a black center, sometimes with black tips.
Davy.
Substitutes are often less than effective when tying. I have used starling in place of snipe occasionally, with good results. I have also purchased snipe and seen it for sale in a number of different outlets, here in the states.
Davy, do you know Charlie Collins? I was given a very nice Greenwell's hen neck and back by a friend of mine. He got it from Charlie. It is just as you described, above. If you'd like more info, let me know.
Mark
Mark,
Are you referring to the Collins hackle co. Drop me a PM regarding this if you will as l also want some more Cock y Bonddu necks.
Which is same except that the ginger is a dark red, by the way this means red and black in Welsh, the name refers to a beetle, which is like a small junebug.
It is absolutely the best hackle for beetle patterns. The other option is hackle from a ringneck rooster, if it is more in the melanistic shade.
Another deadly wet fly called the Haul y Gwynt uses this hackle, again a great fly, means sun and wind.
It both the above are killers for Browns.
Davy.
Davy.
Hi Davy,
I sent you an e-mail and a PM. I hope one got through.
Mark
Got it, thanks Mark.
Davy.
Hi Davy;
I'm a little confused by your reply on Pearsalls substitutes, in you first reply you said the following:
"OK, I do not buy the theory that Pearsalls thread has unique translucency, in fact l would say that many of the threads and flosses we have out there to day are way better.
Thread can provide only one or more of 3 options when used.
Color, reflected or transmitted effect, or its value as seen above or below water color wise."
But later you said there's no substitute for Pearsalls, do you mean that nothing else works just like Pearsalls or that a substitute won't give the same traditional look or effect???
Wayneb