Jump to content
Fly Tying

Recommended Posts

The most useful thing to make tubes out of are cotton buds (Q Tips). Cut the end off and mushroom one end by melting with a flame. Cut the other end at 45 degrees. Take a piece of stiff wire and bend 3/16" (4mm) from the end at 90 degrees. Drop this into the tube from the end cut at 45 degrees. The bent end will sit in the bottom of the angled cut. Place the wire into your vice with the tube hard against the jaws.

 

Tie the fly short of the cut end. After finishing the fly cut off the angled end and use a flame to mushroom the end of the tube.

 

If you are going anywhere near a craft store take a tube with you. Pick up a "Felting Needle" in an appropriate size to fit the tube. Or you can buy one from a fly fishing shop. Here they are about 10x more expensive from a fly fishing shop than a craft store.

 

Some kind of dry flies, buoyant ones, lend themselves to tubes much more than others. Flies like Bombers are perhaps better on a tube than a hook. You can't really get a tube fine enough to tie something like a Catskill dry on, that really wouldn't work. One idea that works but isn't use a great deal is to tie a muddler head on a short plastic tube, fish it in front of a wet fly to turn it into a mini muddler.

 

Tubes can be made with a lining tube that is shorter than the inner tube. This makes a sort of socket in the rear of the fly for the hook eye. If you don't use these tubes then you really need a short length of silicone tubing to keep the hook in line.

 

A good while back I posted a how to on getting started with tube flies on plastic tubes. You might find that useful... If you can find it!

Cheers,

C.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One thing that has been popular more recently is free swinging hooks. Simply means the hook isn't pushed into any tubing so only the force of water and physics keep the hook and tube together in the water.

 

This set up stops very soft wings like goat or monkey tangling on the cast.

Gives the hook more chance to turn and hook into some part of the mouth rather than a hook rigid in tubing.

 

Now if you use a double or a treble some people wrap some thread between the shank and bend so the wing has no possibility of snagging in there. Or you can cut some silicone tubing square and slide that over just the hook.

 

For templedog style flies most folk feel you do need the tubing and a rigid hook at the back.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Canadian tube flies has tube adaptors to fit nearly every vise, they are quite inexpensive. Give them a look. There are a ton of sites in the USA that deal in tube stuff inexpensively as well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Another option is using the PRO TUBE

TYING system. The is made up of a thin beefier section. Tye on the thin section and then insert the hook eye in the beefier section, no need for a connecting tube. You can tye on the beefier part if so desired. The CADDIS FLY SHOP has a great selection of components and prices are good.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...