New Tying Materials

[alanb_ct]

I heard about a few new things, so I placed a quick order to Fly Tying Specialties, and Steve came through really fast. Since I have some time off for the holiday, I plan to do a lot of tying. I ordered three materials that are new to me: caddis legs, nymph skin and chironomid braid. I'll put pictures up after I tie some more flies up in quantity.

I got the caddis legs in natural and dark brown. They are a soft dubbing brush made with deer hair. The core is of thread, not wire. The dark brown makes just about the best "woody" cased caddis I've ever seen, as popularized by Oliver Edwards. You simply wrap the material and trim rough and voila, a perfect fly.

The nymph skin is a 1/8in wide latex strip, plain and simple. It comes in colors you need for shellbacks or body. As a body material, you can easily wrap this material in overlapping wraps to make a latex caddis or grub.

The chironomid braid is basically the smallest hollow core braid I have seen. The red color produces the finest small San Juan worms or midge larva you can imagine. It is a mix of red tinsel and sparkle and has qualities of the red holographic tinsel. For larger patterns, you can also wrap the braid right around the hook.

Happy winter tying!

[alanb_ct]

Here you go. By the way, we can do animated GIFs! It only took me 10 minutes to make this:

[FK]

Alain,

The animated GIF's are great, I must try that idea, thanks for posting.

My xmas bonus will be in direct deposit tomorrow,,,,,a new Canon G10 will be ordered tomorrow morning, along with 8GB card. The retail price has dropped considerably since the G10 was introduced only a few months ago.

Regards,
FK

[Flyfisher]

sweet material and that is one quick tie i like it. Looks like I will be getting some of that stuff soon!

[TroutAholic]

I saw the caddis leg dubbing brushs on Steve's web site, and thought it would make a great cased caddis. Thanks for posting Alain, I'm going to order some up!

Steve

[Flyfisher]

Alan,

Any luck using the Nymph skin i just got some myself and haven't had time to give it a try yet.

Mark

[alanb_ct]

Mark,

I haven't really tried it yet, but it is sort of thick. It might be better as a material for wrapping (as in a latex caddis), rather than a shellback.

[Flyfisher]

I agree it is a bit thick I was thinking the same thing it almost feels like a rubberband to me and almost as thick I think i will be ginvign it a try this week.

[BlackLabel]

Here is a pic of a grub i got off the orvis site. From what i can tell i think its tied with nymph skin.

[alanb_ct]

In my opinion, that fly looks a little too thick, and I would prefer to see a black head. The white material they use looks like it has a slight pearl sheen. I am sure the grub can be a fish catcher in certain situations. In Osthoff's books, he describes scenarios in Wisconsin when fishing downstream of dead animals and seeing the water littered with blowfly larva. In that case, I am sure this would produce!