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MuskyFlyGuy

Mylar tubing fly heads

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If you're talking about mesh tubing heads that look like a cone ... I THINK I know how it's done.

 

Tie in the tubing with a section extending beyond the eye.

Push back that section, causing it to double back on itself.

Tie the pushed back section off right on top of where you tied the tubing in.

Push the "bulge" of tubing back, forming the cone shape.

 

Does that work?

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That works, Mike/Tom. I've done it a few times. Don't use it very often these days. I usually used it to make sand eel or silverside patterns. In these cases, the tubing became the body of the fly.. Here's a couple of pictures, one where the the body is tubing covering the buck tail. The other picture, not a very good one, is where the tubing is whole body, probably one of the first pictures I took with a digital camera.

post-309-0-04786400-1549330163_thumb.jpg

 

post-309-0-72590700-1549330231_thumb.jpg

 

Tom, I'm not sure how big a fly you're planning to tie, but the shape of the head will be determined by the shape of the material you're pushing it over. I have some tubing that two inches wide, so I can make a wide body fly with it. There's a fly tied by Chuck Furmisky, I think he calls it a "Chum Fly". Here's the link to it.

 

http://www.flytyer.com/create-hatch-make-match/

 

It doesn't appear that he tied the tubing with it facing forward but you can do it that way. To me it would make it more natural looking with the nose of the head up against the hook eye. At least that how I would do it.

 

Obviously, you'd have to leave a space in front of the body to wrap thread. I use clear mono or polyester thread. Choice is up to you. Depending on the size of the fly you'd could leave as much as a 1/4 inch or even a bit more. Wrap the thread, a base to start, coat it with super glue and continue to wrap the thread over the glue, then slide the tubing the thread, make some wraps to secure it. Coat it with super glue. Then continue to wrap over it. Since it's going to be inside the tubing you can make as many wraps as you like. When your finished coat the wraps with super glue. Let it dry, cut the thread. Push the tubing over the body. Since it's wrapped to the hook eye you shouldn't have to do anymore wraps.

 

You can leave the tubing uncoated, to add eyes you'll have to coat them with UV resin or epoxy to keep them in place. If you look at Furmisky's fly he leaves the back part frayed. If you do that, you'll need to but a light coat of UV resin, flexible if you got it in order to prevent the tubing from fraying further if you plan to feed it to toothy critters. Use a permanent marker to get the head to match the colors of the rest of the fly. Personally, I would add a light coat of UV resin over the whole head. This would help it keep it's shape, plus toughen it up a bit. Good luck tying with it. Don't forget to show us the results.

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I usually cut the tubing longer than than I need and use a pair of tweezers to double it over by grabbing one end and pushing it through. I then cut it to size and slide it on.

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