Detached bodies!

[Traditionalist]

These flies generated quite a lot of interest at a couple of demos I did.  They are very easy and quick to make, extremely robust, and good fish takers. Some of you may find them useful. This is indirectly related to the "knotting tool" in another thread, because I use the stuff for "daddies".

The stuff used here is "Polychenille", also known as vernille, or ultra-chenille, suede chenille, and a few other names. In smaller sizes it will retain the bend one gives it to some extent. For curved bodies etc.  It is soft and flexible, so does not prevent hook-ups, but it is also very very tough, especially if treated as described below.

I use mainly white vernille ( Actual name is "Samtfaden", which translates to "Velvet thread"), which I found in a craft shop, and colour it with Pantone pens.  But it comes in a range of colours. I got a couple of hanks which were fifteen meters long for a dollar apiece. In short pieces, one can "bend" it to a certain curve. Some of the colours can be used  "out of the box", like brown, olive, etc, mostly I colour the white stuff.

It is not water absorbent. So it does not get wet.  One may also pre-treat it with things like "water-shed" etc. Or even use Gink or whatever if desired.

The flies I dress with it work perfectly. I am not really a big fan of extended bodies on a lot of small flies though, so I do not dress many, I really only use it a lot for mayflies ( British usage E.danica), and crane flies.

The "wrapped" bodies of dubbing and glue were never any good as far as I could determine, usually disintegrating rapidly.  I have used "Copydex" for this instead, but it is a mess on.  The suede chenille is easy and quick to use, and makes robust bodies with very little preparation, need of tools etc.

For the majority of things, ( and unless there is no alternative), I invariably prefer the simplest and most robust solution I can find.

This stuff is NOT AT ALL LIKE ORDINARY CHENILLE as used on woolly buggers etc.

The stuff I have is 2mm, but suede chenille is also available down to 1mm, you can find some here;

http://www.lakelandflytying.co...D=144

There are also a couple of tricks I discovered when playing with this material, which may be of interest.

If one holds a lighter flame below a length of the material, it softens, and takes on a double taper automatically.

One may then fix this length in the vice, and tie in tails etc. if required. When done, just cut it behind where you tied the tail in.

This gives a a very natural looking body. one may also use ribbing etc etc to add realism, segmentation etc. And of course one may use a pantone pen to colour light coloured material.

With a fine pen, one may also add spots, ribs etc. This is good for mayflies.

Here is a scan of some material, ( I didn?t bother with tails or colouring here), in order to show you;


I just did this quickly and roughly, in order to show somebody how to do it. If you don?t want any traces of "burning" or discolouration on  the stuff, hold the lighter further away from it! You can also affect what occurs by tapering the warm stuff with your fingers. This also seals the body. This is very quick and easy, and makes robust and realistic flies. You can  make a few dozen bodies with tails and all in a very short time.

This is really great stuff for crane fly bodies etc.

Here is a scan of the piece from the previous scan tied in as a fly body ( merely quick and rough to give you an idea. I am engaged in something else right now, and did not want to clutter my working area up with other stuff).



You MUST !!!!  use a butane gas lighter by the way. Other flame sources will discolour the stuff badly. To bend, form and otherwise compress it, you can use a heat controlled soldering iron or similar, ( a cautery will also work).

One can also use the stuff for other things of course, like thorax covers etc.

If you look at the single piece of red material above, you will see it has a longer "Stub" at the tail end. This stub is quite hard, as a result of being melted, and may also be easily gripped in the vice.  I have done this here, tied some tails in, snipped the butt off, and scanned the result.  Of course normally I would have coloured the thread ( or used the right colour to start with!), and varnished it, after tying the fibres in,  but I used a different colour here so you can see details. The fibres are cock pheasant ( ring-neck) centre tail, but of course one may use moose mane, hare?s whiskers, fibbets, etc etc etc.

I have also purposely left a couple of "open" wraps so you can see that one can in fact tie on this stub quite easily. Normally of course one would use close tight wraps. Also I have not snipped off the butts of the tails too closely.

The rest of the material stub is of course snipped off after the tails are tied in. This is once again the same piece of material from the first scan;



Just to make that perfectly clear, the stub is held in the vice like this;



Here is a close up:


Sorry about the picture quality, but it is quite difficult doing stuff like this "on the fly".

Here is a "quick and dirty"  mayfly, using the yellow stuff, and a black thread rib;



This fly takes less than a minute to dress, is a good hooker, and robust.

Of course one can dress a range of sizes using the same stuff. Just cut it shorter and taper it more with the lighter. One may also use the same coloured thread as the body of course, and just tie the rib in with the tails. Here I have just left a piece of black thread hanging after whip finishing the tail wraps.  The thorax on this fly is a pinch of light hare body fur, and the hackle is a red game hackle. The hook is a size 12 Mustad. 3904a sproat.

I have had plenty of good fish on these flies, often half a dozen fish or more on the same  fly, and none of them were destroyed. I have had this stuff ( the vernille ) for about twenty years, and have dressed quite a few flies with it, but mostly mayflies and crane flies.

Here a scan of the same fly, ( easier than using the camera one handed!);


Here are nine bodies I just made from the yellow vernille, it took one minute and twenty seconds.  Just hold the lighter under the end and turn the material so that it tapers evenly, ( this happens automatically). Cut the body you have made off, and do the same again. As you can see, I melted some more than others. "melting" is also too strong a word really, the material "shrinks";



This is a much smaller emerger, tied on a 14 hook, with the same yellow vernille body, hare thorax, and hare hackle.;


As I wrote though, one can basically tie them in any size, and although I don?t have any of the 1mm vernille I have no doubt that would work as well, allowing one to go a lot smaller.

Here is a size 16 olive, using the dark olive vernille, and an olive grizzly hackle;


Here is a "set" showing size differences etc, ( but all dressed with the same original 2mm material);


( The thorax and hackle on most is merely hare fur).

These things are excellent for a whole range of things. Here are some other interesting patterns using the stuff, ( or similar);

http://www.flyfishersrepublic....-body/

http://www.thetroutbum.com/pol....html

http://www.thetroutbum.com/polychenille/index.html

http://www.thetroutbum.com/pol....html

http://www.flycraftangling.com/flies_arc.html?a=20

Hope you enjoy them!

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Excellent,  a fly tying master class!

[Traditionalist]

Hope you all made the knotting tools described? 

You wont need them for this, which is my "daddy" version.  I have caught untold numbers of fish on this pattern.








Hook is a standard #12. I use heavier wire hooks for these flies, as one tends to get larger fish on them. The body is the white vernille, tapered with a lighter as described, and then coloured with a tan, yellow and black marker. The colouring should reflect the flies on your water. If you really want to be precise, then carry a few white ones and some markers, and colour them to suit the flies you see. Very many of these flies are a light tan in colour, but this does vary considerably. I have seen various shades of brown and yellow, up to almost black.  I generally still use the pattern shown, the exact colour is not usually critical.

The "wings" are a bunch of hare body fur tied in pointing over the hook eye, and then split. The thorax is light hare body fur.  The legs are cock pheasant centre tail fibre. I don?t knot them, I just crimp them a little over my thumbnail!  Knotting them is a pain in the arse, even with a tool!  It makes them break more easily, and does not make a blind bit of difference to the fish anyway!

The tying sequence is quite straightforward.  Tie in the body, ( I make these up beforehand and colour them etc).  Tie in  four or five fibres of pheasant tail at each side, after crimping them on your thumbnail, just to give them a bit of a bend. Trim the butts.

Tie in a good bunch of hare body fur with the tips pointing over the hook eye, after selecting it, cutting the bunch off close to the skin, and removing the underfur ( just hold the tip of the bunch in your left hand, and pull out the loose fur with your right thumb and forefinger).  Tie in firmly, and trim the butts.

Use the underfur you just pulled out to dub about an inch of the thread tightly.  Wind this in over the butts up to the tie in point of the hare fur wings. Now split the hare bunch with the thread, hold the wings back with left thumb and forefinger. Whip finish.

These flies are extremely robust,  and very good fish catchers. They also cost nowt!

Hope you enjoy them!

@Fred.  If these images are too big, let me know!

TL
MC

[Wildfisher]

Mike, the images are just fine

[Wildfisher]

Mike, I am  bit puzzled by the winging material in the  daddy above. I can't seem to find such long, stiff looking hare fur at all. Which part of the hare is it off? Nice looking fly, I guess I could use elk of fine deer for the wing if I can't find suitable hare?

[Traditionalist]

Mike, I am  bit puzzled by the winging material in the  daddy above. I can't seem to find such long, stiff looking hare fur at all. Which part of the hare is it off? Nice looking fly, I guess I could use elk of fine deer for the wing if I can't find suitable hare?

Just ordinary hare body fur from a lighter coloured area of the pelt.  ( I don?t bugger about with ears much!   )

Just grasp a bunch like this;


Cut close to the skin, and pull out the underfur.  This is more than long enough for even quite large flies.

You can also use rabbit etc.  It may not seem so, but these fibres are quite stiff enough for wings. They are also extremely robust, and float extremely well.

Very many of my flies use such fur for hackles, wings etc.

Elk, deer etc are too brittle.  They break off easily, and they can also be a pain to tie in. They can also be poor hookers! Last but not least, hackle feathers, stiff wings, and the like can cause problems when casting. The fur used here causes none of these problems.

This daddy is just leisurely "sucked in " by the fish, ( when they don?t hit it like a train!). The materials collapse, just as a real fly would.

I don?t use hackles or stiff hair like deer on any of these flies, it causes problems, even in small sizes.  Also, it is nowhere near as robust.  These flies will last ages. A quick rinse, and a blow, and they are as good as new.  Deer hair and some other things tend to get waterlogged after a while.  This alters the attitude of the fly in the film.  Daddies in the film, lie flat!

If you need "sighting help" then add a piece of bright red floss to the top (ONLY!) of the thorax. If you want to further increase the floating properties of the fly, then tie in a small piece of closed cell foam before you wind the thorax, and use this as a thorax cover.

This is how the fly "sits" in the film;


Because of the completely free hook position, these flies are good hookers;


The combination of soft materials, and a completely free hook is of considerable advantage.  Conversely, with stiff materials, and long shank hooks, one may achieve a reasonable imitation, but they are invariably poor ( or at least not as good) hookers.

TL
MC

[Traditionalist]

Cheers for that.
Teriffic flies there including the one's on the links. Really good post.

wee bri.............

Glad you enjoyed it!

TL
MC

[Traditionalist]

Hi Trad,
           Fantastic mate. We did a vernille olive dun last year at the Aberdeen FDG, (Cheers Buchan ) , and your mayflies  look the berries to me.
Now , Mr. Liddle where do we go in Caithness for the first of the Mayfly ?!! :lol:
Nice one Trad.

Paul.

Some of these flies do look very attractive to anglers as well of course. But that is not a criterion.  Actually my criteria for these things can be summed up as KISS QED  and HMDIC?.

Keep It Simple, Stupid.   Quick ,Easy ,Deadly, and,  How Much Does It Cost

TL
MC

[haresear]

Excellent stuff Trad. Keep up the good work.

Alex

[nant_fisher]

Those daddys look brilliant. Whens the next fly swap .......