"Sandy Pittendrigh" wrote in message
...
Tom Littleton wrote:
Tom
p.s. I remember reading of your first version. Geez, are
we getting old!g


Sux doesn't it. With any luck I'll have a fly tying
sequence online by the end of the weekend. But I do
have a leaky toilet to fix and the Baetis are hatching
on the Lower Madison RFN, so there's a lot to do this weekend.

Everything I said about that fly is true: damn good looking,
very easy to tie...you almost can't screw it up, floats
well too.

But there is a catch. You have to go online and buy some
ultra-thin 30 guage TEFLON tubing from an electronics supply house
first.
The TEFLON is used temporarily, during construction, and then removed.
http://www.action-electronics.com/teflontube.htm
......hmmmm. I see they don't sell anything thinner than 26 guage.
That would probably work just fine. I'll have to try to find
a better 30 guage source.


Without the tubing this idea doesn't work at all. With it the bugs fly
off my vise faster than ever before. Placing the hackles on the
bottom side of the fly really does make the fly float better,
as well as look better. It's a big enough improvement you might
even be willing to spend more time making the fly just to get it.

To get those improvements in less time, rather than more,
is pretty slick.

The use of superglue and teflon seems pretty interesting. Off the top of my
head, I can imagine lashing a teflon tube lengthwise along the bottom of a
hook by wrapping 'ribs' widely spaced with some stout thread, supergluing
along the top and letting it dry, then cutting a line down the 'belly' of
the fly and removing the teflon tube. It would leave a series of legs in
place very nicely. You could use a large gauge tube to make larger legs...

--riverman