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despatiesim

substitute to egg yarn for steelhead flies?

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Guys, I wanted to tie some egg paterns this week for steelhead (hope to get another shot at them in about a week), but my fly shop is out of egg yarn in the colors I wanted. Is egg yarn used for anything else? I doubt it was specifically designed for fly tying. I was hopefull I could find it somewhere else, such as a crafts store. Or if not, are there any decent substitutes?

thanks for your help!

 

simon

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Egg yarn is basically an un-spun synthetic wool. Any fibre that has been carded ready for spinning will do. Years ago I recall it being called "Tow Yarn". "Tow" being an old English word for wool that was carded ready to be spun. (Carding is the process of brushing to align the fibres before spinning). Try looking for "Wool Tops" in craft stores, or "Skulpin Wool" in fly fishing shops. (These two things are the same except the Skulpin Wool is hugely more expensive). You could card some Superfine dubbing and use that, or some Flyrite dubbing, but the cost per fly would be enormous. The tow you use needs to be of a fairly fine fibre, the various synthetic carpet yarns sold as Antron etc. will be a bit coarse for the technique.

 

Another alternative from craft stores are the small pompoms sold in packs. You can get them from about 1/4" dia. up to a couple of inches. Push the hook point through the centre and position the pompom at the bend of the hook. Place the hook in your vice, put a small drop of super glue on the shank, where you want the egg, and slide the pompom into position.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers,

C.

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I prefer egg yarn, small pom poms are fine as well but i find they don't last as long and tend to mishapen over time. Mc Fly foam is a good alternative. or if you really want to give a great egg presentation, Otters eggs are by far the most realistic especially when they are wrapped in a veil to look "Milked".

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I prefer egg yarn, small pom poms are fine as well but i find they don't last as long and tend to mishapen over time. Mc Fly foam is a good alternative. or if you really want to give a great egg presentation, Otters eggs are by far the most realistic especially when they are wrapped in a veil to look "Milked".

those Otter Eggs look interesting. they would be far easier to work with than hot glue.

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Tell me folks, do you weight your eggs?

Simon

 

I put a tungsten bead on some of them.

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I prefer egg yarn, small pom poms are fine as well but i find they don't last as long and tend to mishapen over time. Mc Fly foam is a good alternative. or if you really want to give a great egg presentation, Otters eggs are by far the most realistic especially when they are wrapped in a veil to look "Milked".

those Otter Eggs look interesting. they would be far easier to work with than hot glue.

 

Art:

They really are fantastic, and they are soft just like the real thing

 

post-54906-0-42528900-1428724933_thumb.jpg

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