Looking For Advice

[JC Hoppaire 0]

Might try Vinyl Rib

 

http://www.jsflyfishing.com/utc-vinyl-rib

[tjm 0]

I had lousy rubber bands, I guess, they kinda melted in the fly box. Yours will catch fish the way they are, the suggested black head sounds good to me.

Chamois strips would last longer maybe, but, I have settled on wool yarn for all my grubs, so fast, so simple and Sawyer's bug is simplicity defined: no thread, no glue, it can be wound up tight or the wool fuzzed out with a bodkin or brush.

[Dave G. 0]

I'd use some kind of yarn or floss and call it a day.

[dadofmolly 0]

Macrame cord twisted tight.

[Poopdeck 0]

Since I don't tie gobs of flies that get stored in boxes for years or even months the life of a rubberband is more then sufficient for me. I don't like their thickness though. With that said I like the rehab resistance bands you get when rehabbing an injury. You know the 6" wide bands you tie to a fixed object and then stretch back and forth with the injured limb. One knee injury is all it takes. They are thin like thin skin and scud back, it's durable, hard to snap, come in different colors and can colored with sharpies.

[DarrellP 0]

They will work fine. You might try coating them. Chamois car cloth is great for this. Another option is wrapping goose biot. Some AK guys use rubber band flies to represent maggots. They use them up quickly.

[planettrout 0]

I learned a long time ago that rubber rots and latex disintegrates over time. The late Shane Stalcup came up with D-Rib and Glitter D-Rib. It isn't the vinyl junk that comes on spools. Hareline now distributes it in small and medium. The glitter d-rib comes in medium and works for patterns like this:

 

 

Which provides a much more definitive segmentation than either rubber, silicone, latex or any of the other products that lay flat.These are the colors of D-Rib distributed by Hareline:

 

http://www.hareline.com/dr12.html

 

The medium glitter D-Rib has been discontinued so one has to look for it now:

 

https://www.americanflyandtackle.com/Glitter-Half-Round-Rib-p/aft204-303.htm

 

These soft hackles were all constructed with D-Rib:

 

 

 

There is no need to slather this product with UV Resin...it's practically indestructible...using the proper thread size and color beneath the clear version will result in the bug to be imitated...Below, Shane Stalcup uses his D-Rib on a soft hackle:

 

 

 

PT/TB

[chugbug27 0]

Advantage of D rib over the spooled vinyl? Much thanks for this pt

[flytire 0]

No advantage/disadvantage whether it comes on a spool or packaged in a Ziploc bag. Both are "d" shaped