MikeV

Gilly, remember what they say: "Trout don't care about neatness." If a fly comes out looking like a bunch of boogers, fish the thing anyway! - Mike

Yeah, I think you're right Brad--if I can't inspect personally, next best thing is to get someone on the phone who will. There's a fly shop up in Montana who is said to have great service in this regard; maybe it's time I spoke with them. I'll also give Greg a call. I agree, the downside of remote shopping is sight-unseen purchase; the upside is that we have the entire world as our mall.

Yep, naturally looking and feeling by hand is always best, but typically my options there are very limited; I'll see more than a small handful of Whiting dry capes (and no hen capes at all) only once or twice a year, the way the local shop does things. I guess it might be tough to find what I'm hoping to find. I ordered a grizzly Whiting hen cape and thought it would do the job, but it arrived so ultra-dark it was almost black. Whiting said "Sorry but we don't grade by color, if it's grizzly we mark it grizzly, and put it in the package; we expect you to look through the clear plastic." They haven't yet evolved into the online purchase world. So I can't even go back to my retailer and ask them to order me a replacement. If I do, it could be another essentially black cape. Well, dunno, maybe I'll just keep looking. Thanks for the thoughts guys.

Here's a side question: I have good rooster capes for my drys. Also been using some hen capes for years, for "general purpose" stuff--everything from streamers to bugger palmering to wet flies to spider-type wets. One of these is now used up--the grizzly. I've been looking at replacing it with one of these "streamer capes" as all-purpose streamer/wet fly/spider/palmering cape. Anyone have any experience with them? Hard to even know if they're from rooster or hen--suppliers don't seem to say. I don't want something too stiff, like a dry fly hackle. I want something soft enough to be good on wets, spiders, buggers, etc. Been looking at these Ewing & Metz "streamer capes." Their shape looks pretty good--not too pointy. Any thoughts on their wide-use applicability? ("American hen" capes don't have the shape for a wide variety of uses, and nor the right barring.)

Good suggestions Steve; I'll check them out. The ability to use markers will also be a plus, as I suspect the pattern I need won't be available off the shelf.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Yes, foam is lighter than water by design...if it's designed to float. The air trapped in its cells (open or closed) would have to be lighter than the material making up the cell walls, but again I believe most closed cell foam is intended to float, so the cells are "sized" accordingly. My design doesn't call for compressing the foam, so unfortunately I can't use that trick. I could use something besides foam, Flytire, if I can work with it. And Bob, yes I did consider pre-saturating it, and it's a good idea...but I'm kinda hoping to find something that will sink quickly even after a bunch of back-casts. Latex...I'd have to have a look at it. Felt...terrific idea FlaFly, in more ways than one. It might work very well. As soon as the hook and current pull it under, it ought to go on down. I've heard of Larva Lace but have never used it. Hagens & Bear Lodge...tnx Bruce, Utyer & Flytire. I see they have white and black. Let's see if I can find something in a tan...and maybe I'll try the felt idea. Thanks guys. First thing I've learned is that it's not a common thing to be hunting for. I'll try some outside-the-box ideas.

I have a (probably crazy) idea for an interesting pupa pattern, and am hoping to find some thin (maybe 1mm) sinking or neutral density foam in various natural colors, to help make it happen. Since it's a pupa it would have to sink, and it would be easier if I didn't have to incorporate a lot of lead to fight the buoyancy of floating foam. Anyone know if such a sinking/neutral density foam material exists in the tying world? I've looked around but most tying foam seems to proudly state how high it floats. Thanks in advance for any help.