Wing case - synthetic material?

[wbrule 0]

Is there a substitute, synthetic material I can use for wing cases? I don't have ready access to turkey feathers.

[LuciV 0]

For what type of fly do you need?

[rockworm 0]

There are lots of synthetics used as wingcases: Thin Skin, Bugskin, Scud Back, Raffine, and many more. There are also good natural materials you can use: Raffia, Peacock Herl, Pheasant Tail, Duck Quill and many other feathers. An excellent example is hen neck hackle: a clump tyed in behind the head with the tips pointing back gives a wingcase with lots of movement. Every material has its particular properties and uses. Some are opaque, some translucent. Some are stiff while others are stretchy or limber. A wingcase can also be modified by the addition of epoxy or one of the light-activated resins which emphasizes the hump and strengthens the case. (Almost any material of the desired colour can be placed under the resin.)

[Al Beatty 0]

Hi wbrule,

 

Rockworm gave you excellent suggestions. All are spot on!. Another you might consider (a LaFontaine suggestion) is the whitish, thin closed-cell foam usually packaged around electronic items (computers, key boards, etc.). It is semi stretchy and can be colored with a felt-tip marker then coated with Aqua Flex or Clear Cure Goo. It is especially good to use on emergers because it does have a minimal amount of natural floatation. If you want to reduce the floatation just flatten our the foam sheet with a clothes iron (be careful how hot you make the iron so it doesn't melt the foam to the bottom; that's a real possibility, we know! AND it really messes up a perfectly good iron!). Take care & ....

[wbrule 0]

Thanks for the information. I intend to order some turkey, but in the mean time I will try some of these suggestions. I want to tie some March Brown Nymphs that call for turkey wing case material.

[LuciV 0]

you can use any feather you like. It's not so important to stay with the basic pattern. You can adapt the materials and colors with the local colors of insects.

For example I use a lot CDC feathers or hen feathers to make wing cases because are more soft and easy to work with and will not give you a bulky aspect when you tie small nymphs

For example :

 

Hope it helps

 

best,

Lucian

[flytire 0]

Use a couple of brown biots

[RickZieger 0]

You may also want to use flat mylar to make the wingcase.

This makes a flashback nymph.

Did well on panfish with a hares ear type fly with a purple wingcase.

 

Rick

[ihang10 0]

Last weekend I ran out of pearl flashabou and I found some silver sparkle nail polish laying around and epoxied over that and it turned out a phenomenal wing case.

[FlaFly 0]

Raffia was mentioned above, but you can also use the synthetic raffia. Around Christmas time, it's available in red and green, twisted to look like raffia for tying gifts. At big box stores, it also appears often in brown or orange form, to be used for tying things on top of your car.

Also I suggest you go to Dronlee's site.... he uses a lot of unusual things like paper medical tape, etc.

[oldtrout58 0]

If you can find any audio cassettes or 8 tracks or vhs tapes...

[bighornbuster 0]

I am surprised that no one mentioned krystal flash. Makes a great back on a shrimp pattern as well.

[flytire 0]

hair (deer, elk, moose etc)

 

tinsel and all of its equivalents for flashbacks

 

feather fibers (schlappen etc)

 

biots as I mentioned above

 

pheasant tail

 

turkey tail

 

ostrich herl

 

peacock herl

 

be creative. experiment

[tidewaterfly 0]

Yep, as stated by others there's many materials that can be used for those wings cases. There's a simple generic nymph pattern I like that's tied in a manner similar to a Hare's Ear which is basically rabbit dubbing & marabou. The tail is marabou fibers, the body & thorax is dubbed rabbit. I often rib the body with some thin pearl mylar and the wing case is a clump of marabou tied in before the thorax dubbing & pulled forward over the thorax. Sometimes I'll add a turn of mallard breast or other soft hackle, but often not. It's quite "buggy" looking. I usually tie it in shades of olive & black.

 

I've also used strips of chamois & other leather for wing cases.

 

Like Flytire says, be creative & experiment!

[flytire 0]

yarns (wool, antron, polyester, zlon etc)

 

chenille

 

condoms

 

balloons

 

latex

 

burlap

 

hemp

 

foam

 

tyvec paper

 

sandwich/zip lock bags

 

duct tape

 

electrostatic bags electronics come in

 

etc etc etc