Foam Fly Wings

[Patriot 0]

Just as an experiment, I tied a fly with foam wings.

Foam is 2mm gray doubled in half, trimmed and tied with 50D nano. The body is Uni-Yarn Dark Gray and tail came from a Walmart make-up brush.  No hackle was used. (Sorry for the poor iPhone photos)

Floating in my jelly jar.

Back in the vise soaking wet.

Hook is a TMC101 - #18.  These foam wings never let the fly sink.  Am going to try and get a shot from the fishes perspective to see how it looks.

I chose gray for the wings because I read a recent Orvis guide report for the San Juan river and they noted that the trout were put down by white wings.  True or not, I have no idea.  Will know more when I get up in a few weeks.

There is an obvious correlation between the foam mass and the rest of the fly. The wings could be trimmed to look more wing-like, but the fly may sink if this is overdone.

 I have no doubt someone will be able to improve on this idea.  I do know there are UT video's on something similar, but what I saw looked more like posts and not wings.

Thanks!

[Squeezy 0]

Tied a frog small sunfish popper the other day with foam wings. If she lands upside down it’s game over. Need to find a way to prevent that. Otherwise, when landed with gear down- they couldn’t resist. 

[Patriot 0]

@Squeezy

Nice popper!  That looks like a complicated tie.  I suppose they all are the first time around.  From what you noted sounds like the sunfish have already given you a thumbs up.  Nothing more satisfying than that.

There is no end what we tyer's can put on a hook.

Thanks for sharing.

[WWKimba 0]

13 hours ago, Squeezy said:

Tied a frog small sunfish popper the other day with foam wings. If she lands upside down it’s game over. Need to find a way to prevent that. Otherwise, when landed with gear down- they couldn’t resist. 

Try angling the tail slightly upwards.  You could use a small dubbing ball under the tail just behind the thread wraps to accomplish this.

Hope this helps.

Kim

[niveker 0]

15 hours ago, Squeezy said:

Tied a frog small sunfish popper ...  If she lands upside down it’s game over

My warm water foam flies will sometimes land upside down.  A quick, sharp jerk will often right them.  

Looks like a good warm water fly, do you have trouble with it twisting the tippet?

[niveker 0]

19 hours ago, Patriot said:

a fly with foam wings

👍 - good idea, I know a river where that should work well. 

[Squeezy 0]

2 hours ago, WWKimba said:

Try angling the tail slightly upwards.  You could use a small dubbing ball under the tail just behind the thread wraps to accomplish this.

Hope this helps.

Kim

Thanks for the tip Kim!  

 

38 minutes ago, niveker said:

My warm water foam flies will sometimes land upside down.  A quick, sharp jerk will often right them.  

Looks like a good warm water fly, do you have trouble with it twisting the tippet?

Hey Niveker- not sure to be honest?  I’m back to square 1 with fly fishing after running conventional for many years. In fact I currently have just tippet tied directly to fly line. Not set up right, but it’s working for small bluegill so I’ll continue. I’m sure with my wild casting my line is twisting- I know it’s got wind knots :). Either way, it brings a whole new fun factor to fishing. 

[niveker 0]

2 minutes ago, Squeezy said:

tippet tied directly to fly line

That's really all you need for warm warm, IMO.  Thicker tippet with keep the twisting down.  

 

3 minutes ago, Squeezy said:

Either way, it brings a whole new fun factor to fishing. 

That's for sure, I love catching blue gill on the fly.    

[Philly 0]

I was going to suggest a heavier tippet, but niveker beat me to it.   I have that problem sometimes with my foam flies, I use 3 mm foam for the body.  A quick strip, as already mentioned, will usually right it.  I can't tell what type of hook you're using.  One solution might be to use a heavier hook.  Rather than a dry fly hook, use a streamer hook.  Another solution, might be to lower the wings.  Rather than tying the wings on top of the foam, tie them to the shank.  Having a hook ride up right isn't a bad thing if you're trying to go weedless, or fishing for bass, but not so much for bluegills.  I have one frog pattern that rides hook point up, but I use an Ahrex Predator Swim Bait hook, basically a worm hook, and the bulk of hook sits below the foam and acts as keel and off-sets the weight of the foam.  It's a bass fly, size 2, though I've had bluegill try to grab it.

[Squeezy 0]

Appreciate the feedback Philly. Can’t recall what hook it was at the moment. It was one of those, I’ll try some of this foam from my daughters plethora of craft supplies. No rubber legs yet so I just used foam. 
 

that being said, I placed an order from fly Tyler’s dungeon and am like a kid waiting for Christmas morning.