Classic salmon flies

[bgause1 0]

Tied up these classic flies the other day on a few salmon hooks I had sitting around:

 

 

I recently moved offices on my university campus. I will be in this office while I finish my phd (studying aquaculture) for up to 4 years so I wanted to make it feel like home. I put up some neat vintage style tin fish signs (eagle claw, creek chub co. etc) and a shadow box with some other flies I have tied in it. And of course I have a few fish tanks in there as well. I plan on framing these flies as well and putting them up on the wall.

 

Im acutally fairly pleased with the way these came out considering I really have never tried to tie any of them before (except for the skunk).

 

[Mr. Vegas 0]

I like your rusty rat! Good job

[bgause1 0]

Thanks Mr Vegas.

 

Here they are framed. Id prefer to do it a bit different but this was a nice cheap frame. In the future I would like to frame them more like the pros do. Cant wait to get it up on my office wall come Monday.

 

[Flytyer14 0]

Not bad my friend!!

[bgause1 0]

Thanks.

 

To anyone else that may read this...whats a good way to display dry flies? Also any tips on displaying in general would be great. Especially things that are more bulky and may not go into a frame well (deer hair and what not). The shadow box I have other flies in works ok but I dont feel like it really captures their look as well if you know what I mean.

[Mr. Vegas 0]

I just stick in some cork I get from a craft store. It gets if off the back surface.

 

[morfrost 0]

Depending on your shadow box and how deep the recess is , you can make a mounting substrate out of foamcore board, available at craft shops. Cut this so that it just fits the inside dimensions of your shadow box.

 

I like to mount Hairwing Atlantic Salmon Flies and Classic featherwing flies using bugle beads and 12# monofilament fishing line. I use a bugle bead at the head and one at the rear of the hook near the bend. On a Classic pattern this is where the butt or body and the tail meet. These are thin glass culinders of various lengths and finishes, and are mainly used in craft jewellery.

 

I also like to use Oval matts; sometimes 2 matts in contrasting colours , with only about 1/4-3/8" showing on the smaller matt. I place the fly on the mounting substrate, place the matt(s) on the substrate as well and mark the locations of the bugle beads with a fine pencil mark at each spot, centering the fly in the oval where it will be ulltimately displayed.

 

Then using an awl or coarse sewing needle I make holes through the foamcore substrate. I push the needle in from the viewing (finished) side through to the back of the substrate, so the paper face is pushed "out" on the non viewed side, and pushed "in" on the finished side.

 

At this point , if you wish, you can make a background for your mounting substrate. This could be a piece of cardstock with the fly pattern name on it written in a decorative script font, or some handmade textured paper, or anything else which you feel might add interest to the presentation. Just make sure to locate your text in the appropriate place in your viewing window, when you trim your background to size, if you choose to use text in your display.

 

You can add text using Microsoft Word or some other WP program. Your inkjet printer should be able to print cardstock, availablre at craft stores, business supply stores or even dollar stores. The background is trimmed to the size of the mounting substrate and then glued to the substrate with spray adhesive. Because you've already marked the holes for your bugle beads on the substrate, you just poke a small hole in your background through the holes previosly made. and everything should be all lined up.

 

Install the bugle beads and mount the fly.

 

A bugle bead is a thinl glass cyclinder having a hole through the centre. Push one bead into each of the holes you made in the substrate. I like to do this from the finished front to the back. You may have to play with thesize of the holes with your needle or awl until the beads are properly mounted and you can see the glass cylinder pushed through to the back of the substrate. The thickness of the foam core of the foamcore board will hold the bead in place.

 

Take a piece of 12# mono, 8" long and push one end through the bead from back to front. When it is through to the front, pull it out a couple of inches and stick it back into the bugle bead, forming a loop on the front , or finished side. Grab both ends of the mono in one hand at the back, and holding the fly in your other hand, place the head of the fly on or very near the end of the bugle bead, and tighten the loop until the loop, fly and bugle bead are snugged together. Take the tag ends of the loop material and while maintaining tension , place the mono against the back or the substrate. Now take a 2-3" piece of masking tape and place it over the loop material, taping it tp the back of the substrate. Run the tape along the mono so it's taped down 2-3" along the substrate. Trim off the leftover mono.

 

Now do the same at the rear of the fly. You may find it easier to feed one end of the mono loop material from the back though to the finished side ; loop the mono over the body and back into the hole in the bugle bead und grab the tag end at the back of the substrate. You may also find this operation easier if you hold and slide the body of the

fly away from the bugle bead to give you clear access to the hole in which you thread the mono.

 

Adjust trhe attitude of the fly with respect to the substrate to your liking and then snug it all together with the loop and tape down the second loop at the back as before.

 

When I'm happy with everything I usually squirt a small drop of Krazy Glue into the back of the bugle beads. Surface tension will wick the glue up into the bead, fastening the loop mono and bead together.

 

I usually use a #4 bugle bead , which I get at craft stores, in a clear or silver finish. When mounted, the fly "floats" in the shadow box above the surface of the substrate. Because the beads are small in diameter ( approximately 2 mm or so) they are largely hidden by the body of the fly, creating the illusion of floating in the space.

 

 

I usually make 4 small spacers from the foamcore board which I glue to the back of my picture matt . THis pushes the matt tight against the glass face of the shadowbox. I mount them where the matt and the sides of the shadow box frame meet. These are sized to be as deep as the space from the back of the matt(s) to the face of the mounting substrate. By keeping these small, they won't be seen in the final display.

 

This is kind of a long description, but I hope it will be of some use to you.

 

 

[morfrost 0]

A few years ago my daughter and son in law went to Ireland as part of my daughter's work duties. That Christmasn they gave me some antique Irish flies, both wet and dry.

 

I mounted them in a round wooden frame with a shallow glass dome that once contained a dried flower arrangement. I picked this up at a yard sale. After cleaning out the dried flowers I made a curved wooden shelf about 1/2" thick which roughly followed the contour of the shallow glass dome. I would ultimately attach this to the back of the domed frame.

 

I drilled small holes in the curved shelf large enough to accept a short piece of clear elastic ( rubbery) bracelet stringing cord which I got at the dollar store. I think it was 1 mm thick. These are available in .5mm 1mm and 1.5mm thicknesses.

 

I stuck the point of the hook into one end of the short piece of this material and inserted the other into the hole I made in my small curved shelf. When doing the final assembly I mounted the shelf on the back of the frame first. Because the cord is elastic, it stretches to clamp onto the hook point and hold it in place. A drop of Krazy Glue cements it in place. I also think I put a drop into the wooden shelf at the time of assembly.

 

Since the fly has virtually no weight and the piece of cord is short and relatively stubby it is relatively stiff. There is no observable deflection in the cord material , and it acts like as it were a rigid material, suspending the fly above the shelf on a clear, relatively transparent column.

 

You view the flies head on. Because the glass is curved and the flies have horizontal separation in their mounting, you can see details from above, below and the sides. I've attached a photo.

 

I'm sure this could be adapted to have this cord mounted directly to a vertical surface such as the back of the frame, although this would not permit viewing much more than the side view or top view, depending on how you chose to arrange the mounting.

 

Perhaps, instead of using a wooden shelf, a narrow shelf made out if a clear plastic ( Plexiglas) would be suitable.

[trez 0]

I made a few that I mounted inside the center of the plastic spools that fly lines come on. Just removed the label, then I put an old fly line on the spool and the fly in the middle and it looked kinda cool. I used sheep skin as the background but you could use whatever looked good with your flies. They were my Christmas gifts one year when money was tight. Most fly shops can hook you up with some spools and old lines if you don't have any sitting around.

[Bruce Derington 0]

http://www.sawdust-stitches.com/ This is where I get all my domes and shadow boxes. The best of the best

[Mr. Vegas 0]

awesome link! thanks bruce