Sparkle yarn confusion

[Guest]

I'm getting ready to tie up some of G. Fontaines Sparkle pupa's and while rounding up materials to do them I see that there is a huge debate over the "proper" antron yarn to use for the halo'ed shuck. Is this really a determining factor in this pattern ? Some say you have to use "tri-lobal" filiment antron to get the right effect and that not any old antron yarn will do.

Feathercraft sells some stuff they say is perfect for the pupa pattern but then I saw where most guys consider "that stuff" too coarse for smaller sizes, and that the "correct stuff" has to be purchased from some ......"publishing company" ???(WTF ? )

 

What a P.I.A. !! Can anyone CLEAR THIS UP?

I don't want to tie up a bunch and then find out they aren't as good as they should be had I waited to get "THE RIGHT STUFF".

 

[Guest]

Greycliff publishing sells the original gary lafontaine yarn. IT does make a difference in how the bug will look. What colors are you doing, I have some light olive and tannish cream if you want I could send you a sample of each.

 

john

[Irish 0]

Gary was in partners with Stan Bradshaw in Greycliff publishers. The company does sell all the anron tri-lobal yarn the Gary used in his patterns. It is sold two ways. One of just the yarn and an other with the yarn cut up for touch dubbing.

 

The way it worked was if you wanted the yarn and bought a book, the company would include the yarn with the shipment of the book. This cut was down on shipping costs for the company. I may be wrong but I thought the last time I bought a book and the yarn, there was no shipping.

 

they have bookmailer newsletter that is very enjoyable to read. The book prices are good and there are gary's flies for sale and lots of neat stuff.

 

Irish

[Guest]

I apprieciate the offer John, but I'll need a bunch of it. What's the deal with it anyway? Who actually makes the stuff ? AAAAARRGH! I hate situations like this, drives me nuts.

 

Does this publishing company have a website ?

 

It blows my mind that with a pattern as talked about as it is, the "correct" materials to tie it are so mysteriously hard to obtain.

 

I'll do a search on greycliff pub. and see what I can come up with. Thanks for the feedback.

 

 

FW

 

 

[Guest]

http://www.greycliff.com/

[SALMONATOR 0]

I usually don't sweat small stuff like that too much. I tend to use what I have on hand and substatute as needed. For instance, I tye alot of Adams flies and weather I dub them with antron or rabbit, hell, as long as it's grey it doesn't seem to change much about how well the fish like them.

 

There are very few materials I've found that there just is no substatution for, like peacock hurl for example. Maybe this special yarn is one of them. I don't know. I'd try to tye some with what you have on hand and let the trout be the judge. I've never used this yarn you speak of, but to tell you the truth it kinda' sounds like a promotional ploy for the stuff to me. I could be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time. Good luck either way, and let us know how it all works out.

 

Al

[Guest]

Yeah Salmonator, from what I gather, this is "one of those". Supposably if the material isn't what they call "tri-lobal" then you loose the effect of the fly. And the people saying this are respectable and not affiliated.

 

I went to greycliff.com and it was easy and reasonably priced. I didn't know that Fontaine and greycliff publishing... were an.... entity (for lack of a better word).

 

I was thinking, "what's a publishing company and antron yarn got in common" LOL

but so happens they have an online store of all the special materials that Fontaine used and spoke of in his tying. He must have been quite the "special material" guru.

I know a guy just like him, this fella has an old quilt (blanket thing) that has somekind of special yarn in it. He ties mini-jigs out of this yarn and swears it's the best "go-to fly" in the world. Personally...I can't get bit on it... LOL...and the stuff just looks like regular damn yarn TO ME so WHATEVER lmao

 

But you never know til ya go

 

FW

[Guest]

This link is from Fly anglers online and is the tying for Gary's Sparkle pupa's.

 

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/f...011402fotw.html

 

In Gary's own words , "The dubbing mix of half sparkle yarn and half fur is hand-cut in 1/8-inch lengths, and then blended together in a mixer."

 

There is also a second link to a pattern tied the same way by Skip Morris.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Fatman

[Guest]

Thanks Fatman. Yeah, greycliff also sells the touch dubbing blend cheap enough that it's not worth blending it yourself. I even splurged on their 10.00 comb... "specially designed for combing antron"

 

All I know is...these things better catch fish cuz I've spent 40 bucks aquiring materials to tye them

What a bonehead......I could have bought a lifetimes supply of Sparkle pupas tyed by "the man himself" for that price.

This fly tying isn't a sickness..... cuz there's no cure... It has to be a Disease!

[LigonierA1 0]

Okay gang, draggin' this one up from the archives.......

 

I too have a bunch of the real deal yarns and "touch dubbing" from Greycliff. The ONLY problem I encounter.....the colors seem WHACKED.

 

I wanted the materials to tie the ubiquitous tan caddis. I get a pile of the yarn from Greycliff and find that green is blue. Russet is flat out orange. I can't get a tan or a gold, and that's what hatches predominantly in my area. I was sitting there with Gary LaF's book in my lap and ordered right from the Yellow and Brown deep sparkle pupae pattern. No tan or gold available so I went with the "russet" as the pattern indicated.

 

If I use the russet, I'm tying orange caddisflies, not tan. Does this work on some level that I don't understand?

 

And, to add a little value to the thread, I've used Zelon, spooled antron and carded antron to tie these patterns as well. All seem to work and come in better color options than the original "greycliff" yarns. None, however, were as soft or nice to use as the greyclif stuff. For #12s and #14s, the Zelon is pretty good, but when you get to the #16s and #18s, it gets pretty hard to get a nice veil with the coarseness of the material.

 

I have yet to try the material the the Stories sell through Feather-Craft, I guess I should take a look....

 

Bottom line, what are you guys using for tan sparkle pupae?

 

[picketpin 0]

If your looking for antron yard. Go to WalMart and get some its call aunt lindas antron yarn all kinds of colors&thickness tight lines MIKEl

[LigonierA1 0]

Thanks Mike, I'll check that out.

 

Anyone else got any thoughts? It's a little frustrating to buy the right yarn, buy and read Caddisflies, and then not be able to achieve the most common color of caddis in my neck-0-the woods?

 

I'll check Aunt Lydia's antron yarn, that sounds very promising....

[rscconrad 0]

Once you check out the Aunt Lydias you need go no further. Mike is dead on on that one.

 

There are at least a dozen colors of AUnt Lydia's and I have never seen 1 store sell them all. It took me quite a while to get all the colors.

 

A lot of Walmarts even carry this stuff.

 

Robert

 

 

[mhackney 0]

search on ebay for Aunt Lydia and you'll find a few sets of the most useful colors. However, a full skein sells for about 88 cents if you can find it at WM or a sewing or craft store. I was in our local JaAnn Fabrics yesterday and they had every color except the rust red.

[Joe Hard 0]

I would love to have some of that yarn I gave up looking after a week of every place here came up empty