Extended Body Dry Flies

[whatfly 0]

Do you tie them, buy them, fish them, do you like them, yes / no, positive and negative aspects. Hard to tie, hard to hook fish, not durable, too delicate, etc.

No, no, no, and no. Are not worth the time or effort IMHO, although I have fiddled with the patterns at the vise (none ever made it to my box, however). One exception in the future would be Hex patterns, but I have yet to hit that hatch.

 

Love your videos, by the way, so if this is marketing research, my dislike for the method/pattern does not mean I would not be interested in a video tutorial you might produce.

[Brant Lempke 0]

On 6/21/2012 at 9:18 AM, utyer said:

Ok, I'll start. I first started tying them 30 years ago, when I saw Bing Lemke's patterns. These patterns all used a loop of mono for a core. This loose ends were first attached to the hook, then the loop was suspended from a post by a retractor clip. There were no gallows posts in those days. Once the loop was ready, the the tails and a dubbed abdomen were wrapped around the mono. The loop was then cut off at the junction of the tails and abdomen. The wings, thorax and hackles were tied on a short shank hook in the conventional way. Bing was able to tie these patterns down to a size 22. I still tie a few, but not many these days. They are fun to tie, even if they take a little more time. I find the results are usually worth the effort estetically, and I like the overall look, the upturned bodies more closely mimic the naturals. I fish more emerging patterns or nymphs these days, so I am rarely in need of a dun pattern, and the spinners mostly lay flat on the surface so I don't find any advantage to the extended body.

 

I have on occasion tied extended body hopper, damsel, and stone fly patterns. On these larger flies, the bodies I make are usually foam or deerhair, and are tied on a needle. I haven't as yet tried tying extended bodies on the "J" hooks.

 

I like the ways extended body flies look and think they look and work well for larger patterns.

Hi, my Dad Bing actually tied them on a size 32 hook.

 

On 6/21/2012 at 9:18 AM, utyer said:

Ok, I'll start. I first started tying them 30 years ago, when I saw Bing Lemke's patterns. These patterns all used a loop of mono for a core. This loose ends were first attached to the hook, then the loop was suspended from a post by a retractor clip. There were no gallows posts in those days. Once the loop was ready, the the tails and a dubbed abdomen were wrapped around the mono. The loop was then cut off at the junction of the tails and abdomen. The wings, thorax and hackles were tied on a short shank hook in the conventional way. Bing was able to tie these patterns down to a size 22. I still tie a few, but not many these days. They are fun to tie, even if they take a little more time. I find the results are usually worth the effort estetically, and I like the overall look, the upturned bodies more closely mimic the naturals. I fish more emerging patterns or nymphs these days, so I am rarely in need of a dun pattern, and the spinners mostly lay flat on the surface so I don't find any advantage to the extended body.

 

I have on occasion tied extended body hopper, damsel, and stone fly patterns. On these larger flies, the bodies I make are usually foam or deerhair, and are tied on a needle. I haven't as yet tried tying extended bodies on the "J" hooks.

 

I like the ways extended body flies look and think they look and work well for larger patterns.

  He then supe

r glued them to the leader.  Brant Lempke

[Brant Lempke 0]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you that my Dad Bing, tied extended body flies on size 32 hooks. He would then super glue them on the leader.  Fooling the fish worked well, however, landing them was a toss up!  Thanks, Brant Lempke....

[Sandan 0]

I tie a pretty simple furled yarn extended body for mayflies and midges. They work pretty well. Tomorrow I'll be tying some Iwane extended body duns

[Guest]

Tried a few with foam around mono core.  

 

 

 

 

[Lesg 0]

We have a good hex hatch in some lakes here. I tie extended  bodies on a mono core and have tried fan wings and hair wing parachutes. I found the fan wings helicoptered like crazy twisting your tippet but did not have the issue with hair wings. I'm off to the shed to find a fly to post a picture of.

[SilverCreek 0]

I tie up  Flex Hex flies designed by Wisconsin guide John Nebel to match the largest mayfly in the USA, the Hexagenia Limbata. We have huge Hex hatches on a local stream and the Tomorrow River referred to in the article is in the next county. The Hex hatch occurs about the first week of June in my local stream. 

The Flex Hex is the best pattern for this hatch that I have been able to find and I've tried a number of them from traditional patterns tied on straight hooks to extended body patterns tied on shorter hooks. Both have problems hooking up on all takes.

The problem is that the naturals are so huge that "stiff" patterns are often pushed out of the way on strike. Unlike the natural which folds up, the stiff tail and body of traditional patterns do not and the fly just gets pushed out of the way unless it is a perfect take.

The Flex Hex solves this problem by putting a mono to mono loop hinge in the middle of the pattern and even smaller fish can take in this pattern. It actually fold ups and offers less resistance than the natural.

I've modified this pattern to a parachute which produces a more realistic impression on the water and which can easily be changed into a spinner by cutting off the post. The naturals have a mottled brown body with a yellow abdomen and the cross hatched brown thread on yellow mimics this.

Parachutes are best tied with one size longer hackle than the traditional hackled flies and getting hackle that is long enough for a flex hex is difficult. Modern genetic capes have longer feathers with denser hackle but the hackle length is shorter. I use my old Metz necks from the 1980s for the size 2 hackle that I use for this pattern.

So don't throw your old necks away. Modern necks are better for almost all patterns but some large flies like Flex Hexs and the Borger Blue Damsel can be tied with the longer less dense fibers of older necks.

Here is a Hexagenia Limbata from Trout Nut.

[flytire 0]

On 4/20/2023 at 11:43 AM, danishnavas@ said:

I stole the fly out of my box and snapped a quick photo for you.

 

 

 

Speed Test

okay where is it?

[Sandan 0]

Posted this in April flies from the vise.

[Lesg 0]

11 hours ago, flytire said:

okay where is it?

Possibly the same place my photos are. I went and picked out 3 extended body flies, a hair wing traditional hackle, a parachute hair wing and a poly wing parachute similar to SilverCreeks'  articulated pattern without the articulation. I then dug out my old (ancient?) digital camera and found that any closeups attempted looked so out of focus that they were pretty much useless, thus no photos.

Les

[salmobytes 0]

I make the whole body on a needle, wings included, and not just the tail. Parachute hackle winds between shank and modular body.

Floats well castes well always lands upright.

 

 

[salmobytes 0]

Ducktail PMD on a #18 Tiemco 2587

 

 

 

 

[salmobytes 0]