Tying black foam beetles difficulties....

[garetjax 0]

I am having a small problem tying black beetles using closed cell foam. The problem I am having is that I chose to use a bit of Holographic Flashabou Tying Material made by White River (Bass Pro Shop brand) for use on the underbody of the beetle. I am using the gold colored, item number 38-225-470-02 version of this material.

 

I have selected a size 14 hook, and wrapped a thread base onto the shank. I then installed the foam, and tied one end down, which I then installed some black dubbing to give the beetle some girth. This is where I am starting to have problems. When trying to install the Flasabou, it keeps unravelling. I tied one end down at the rear where I tacked the foam down at, and reset my bobbin position to the hooks eye. I then wrapped a strand of Flashabou clockwise along the shank until I get to the hooks eye, where I am having a very difficult time in trying to hold it down with thread from my bobbin so it doesn't unravel.

 

I want the Flashabou to be wrapped tightly against the dubbing, and I want no black of the dubbing to show through the tinsel. But every time I try to accomplish this, the tinsel moves about on the dubbing, sliding over the other coil of tinsel next to it. What am I doing wrong? What can I do to get rid of this problem?

 

One thing to keep in mind is that the dubbing is tightly secured to the hook. There is no "fluffiness" to the dubbing. In other words, the dubbing does not give under the coiled tightness of the tinsel, therefore, it is not the dubbing that is causing so much slack in the tinsel when I wrap it around the hook.

 

Can anyone help me with this? I am having a very tough time trying to keep the tinsel (Flashabou) coiled tight enough around the hook/dubbing so that the coils stay in place and do not slide around, as well as trying to figure out how to secure the end of the tinsel to the hook itself so it doesn't unravel.

[deeky 0]

I was just having issues with this the other night and it sounds about like the same problem. The problem I was having was in a very steep taper on the end of some lead wraps. The tinsel is very slippery and basically wants to slide downhill, to the smaller diameter, thus giving you the slack. Without seeing the fly, that is my best bet. About the only decent solution that I can come up with is to make 1 counter wrap of tinsel (opposite direction of the thread) and then make a tight wrap of thread over that to help hold it in place. It will take some work since you are switching materials every wrap, and the tinsel (if it's not super fine) will still show around the thread. Give it a shot.

[down2earthlv 0]

coat your dubbing with a bit of head cement or flexament....wait a bit for it to start to set, then wrap the body. Sounds good in theory, its a suggestion though....

[flytire 0]

You might try tying the foam at the front of the hook and then wrapping the thread toward the bend creating the plump underbody with the foam instead of dubbing. Wrap the thread back to the eye and now tie in the flashabou. Wrap the flashabou to the bend and then back to the eye. This double layer of flashabou will cover and bare spots from the first layer. Tie that off and fold the foam over and tie in at the head.

[Guest]

I would forget the dubbing underbody. The silhouette of the fly will be created by the foam and the legs (if any), so the underbody will be overshadow (literally). Since you want flash, I would tie foam at the bend and return the thread to the eye. Then I would tie in the tinsel the whole length of the hook and again return the thread to the eye. (This results in 4 layers of thread in total.). Then I would wrap the tinsel to the eye and back to the bend and back to the eye, creating 3 layers of tinsel. This should make it full, smooth and shiny. Tie off the tinsel at the head and proceed with the foam overbody.