Sealing Foam?

[flytire 0]

Flytire, I'm using the craft foam, I got it at Wally World. Is something else better?

 

i dont know where the fly shops get their foam but i do think its better than the craft section foam sheets

 

a sunken sponge spider sure hasnt stopped the panfish in my area from slamming them

[burch 0]

I coated a few with epoxy but haven`t tried `em yet. Some of the comercial poppers have a hard coat of something and i`d bet it`s epoxy. I`ll try mine this weekend and give ya a report.

 

burch

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Interesting topic, i mainly fish subsurface, but today i busted out some of my foam ties, one was awesome 'KC's bass fly' but i had done some 'gurglers' and they pretty much sank after a few flicks and sucked big time! One thing i noticed if u punch them out a long long way the amount u have to jerk/ strip to make them do their dance is mad. Like fast quick 2ft + strips! Good luck if u have 80ft+ of line out. Even like solid bodies with cup faces. Need scotch guard and some serious floatant!

 

Anyway, going to have another try tomorrow, i am pretty much sure my gurglers need a double layer like what i have seen some people tie on here, it was just crap, lucky i only have like 3 (where is the scalpel and scissors!?) Was like the worst fly ever, bloop, pop, gurgle, sink, nothing. Even the panfish were making jokes at me

 

The KC's were really working nicely and had an excellent 'v' wake, the added bit of foam in the tail really makes them ride nicely. Here is one u can see the tail,

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/KirkDietrich/FlyFishinJamSFlies#5590471663337009586

[JSzymczyk 0]

I guess I've just been lucky... "craft store" foam is all I've ever used and I haven't had any sinkers. My opinion is that epoxy coating would add a lot of weight, and if the foam is questionable to begin with, would just make it worse once the epoxy cracks and lets water in. At the most, I would think an application of paste floatant would be all that's needed.

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Yeah i rekon silicone floatant would help here and be the best bet, i tried sealing my craft store foam once with sally hansen but i ended up brushing the colour onto the brush and back into the pot. Well silicone, or whatever it is, and say i am going to try this scotch guard stuff. Need to spray some on me too to guard against angry scots. weird name.

 

*edit, then again checking my bottle of floatant it says 'poo goo' and there is another bottle here called 'frogs fanny'

[ColonelMel 0]

I stopped by a Dollar General Store yesterday afternoon and bought 3 pairs of flip flops for a dollar each. I tied one of the 14 2Z flies and gave it a try in my pond. It didn't sink. Caught half a dozen bluegill and used it about 45 minutes. But the fly was a bit thick and lumpy. Is there a secret to cutting the flip flops? The strips were easy, but trying to split them and get them thin... they looked whittled.

 

But the flip flops did work great! Thanks!!!

[JSzymczyk 0]

never heard of anyone trying to shave layers off a flip flop for foam. Normal use for those is with a hole-punch, to make foam cylinders. Sheet foam from craft departments is for making flies with cut out shapes, etc.

[Al Beatty 0]

I stopped by a Dollar General Store yesterday afternoon and bought 3 pairs of flip flops for a dollar each. I tied one of the 14 2Z flies and gave it a try in my pond. It didn't sink. Caught half a dozen bluegill and used it about 45 minutes. But the fly was a bit thick and lumpy. Is there a secret to cutting the flip flops? The strips were easy, but trying to split them and get them thin... they looked whittled.

 

But the flip flops did work great! Thanks!!!

 

Hi Mel,

 

We use a set of plug cutters we got at Harbor Freight. They seem to do a fairly good job. Also not part of this thread but we think that Backer Rod (the stuff for caulking around windows during installation/constructions available at building supply houses like Lowes) makes a really great popper head. Our poppers made out of this stuff never sink. Take care & ...

 

Tight Lines - Gretchen & Al Beatty

www.btsflyfishing.com

[ColonelMel 0]

We have horses, so I have a full range of various size leather punches.. worked great!

[Runarsson 0]

Hi CoachBob & group,

 

Gretchen & I have learned over the years when tying with Craft Foam (like the stuff from Walmart)that stretching it so it lays in place real nice (and smooth) tends to squeeze much of the floatation out of the foam and can cause a fly to sink very soon after hitting the water.

//..//

Foam freak myself and agree with you fully. Stretching it or squeezing it can easily turn a good foam strip into a bad foam strip. To this I like to add that there ARE 'good' foam and 'bad' foam out there to begin with. I buy foam wherever I see it, even though I have an abundance of it. I guess it can be classed as a disease. But it has also made it easy to see that "foam isn't just foam". For example a sheet bought in a craft store might be a better or worse floater than the one in the fishing store... and the yellow sheet in a bag can be a better or worse floater than the red sheet in the same bag. There can be big differences in density and you can also often see differences in thickness between two sheets which are both labeled "2mm".

 

My best tip to make foam flies float is to be generous at the rear part of the hook. Many times have I heard people talking about foam flies like it equals 'unsinkable'... but there's nothing supernatural about foam either. The hook is much heavier back there. With the additional weight of the bend and the barb/point part, the rear half of the hook can weigh 2-3 times as much as the front half. Today I mostly try to use shorter hooks for my trout flies with foam and instead compensate with some form of "extended" body, cut to shape if needed. A little bit of uncompressed foam helping also from behind the bend (and the compressed tie-in point) can make a big difference in floatability.

 

/Nick

[troutguy 0]

I got a really well tied popper in a swap and it appears to be a commercial foam body (maybe the guy makes them). Perfect paint job too. The popper has hackle too. I sort of floats. It is almost below the surface. Hate to be old, but no foam floats like balsa wood or deer hair.