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I'm sure this has been done before, but just in case. when tying foam bodies, I found it very useful to tie in the foam as normal, but then twist the foam and wrap it around the hook as you would peacock. This makes for a very tight, and uniform body. I use this mainly on hopper patterns, and adult stoneflies. Im sure this could be used on nearly any fliy that needs a foam body? Good luck
- David
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Game fish are too valuable to only be caught once.
-Lee Wulff
Yep. I do that in place of the olive dubbing on my #8 Deer Hair Caddis Trudes (I use for finicky LMB) especially and also use foam bodies on hoppers. I asked about this a while back and found out a lot of folks here are as guilty as me for using foam on dries and other flies http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/biggrin.gif.
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Robert B. McCorquodale
Sebring, FL
"Flip a fly"
Just a question? When you twist the foam and wrap it on as a body don't you defeat the purpose of using foam in the first place? Don't you take the floatation out of it by taking the air out of it when you twist it? Ron
[This message has been edited by RonMT (edited 21 January 2006).]
Hi FT317,
I'm not sure that I'm getting the whole picture with your foam wrapping. What type of foam are you using? Strips from a 2 or 3 mm sheet or cylinders like Rainy's foam. If you are using 2mm sheets, how wide is the strips? If Rainy's cylinders, what diameter?
Ron also raises a good question. How is your floatation after all this twisting and compression? Thanks in advance for the clarification! 8T http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/smile.gif
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You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it's a real short camping season.
I also do this on several flies. I don't wrap the foam real tight and it still floats.
I also take thinner strips of 2 mm foam and wrap them on the hook of some subsurface flies. By playing around you can get the flies to susupend. This works well at times for crappie and gills.
Rick
When you wrap the foam, don't pull it too tight as this squeezes the little air bubble and makes the foam dense. I know folks that not only tie hopper bodies this way, but also stimulators.
Below is a pattern that incorporates a foam body. There may be some more patterns within the fine listing of super patterns here in the "Fly of the Week" archives. But I know of this pattern because it was submitted by me several years ago.
[url=http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/ezhopper/:08988]http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/ezhopper/[/url:08988]
Peter F
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Peter F
www.fishingwithflies.com
pfrailey@hotmail.com
Foam also makes a great under body, Where you need bulk without adding weight.
Such as the under body of the matts cricket,In which I use fine bubble packing foam of the type that rifle scopes are packed in. With a coating of Flexament prior to wrapping the peacock herl over body...Very durable body,as well as extremely realistic.
I believe that these types of foam are closed cell so it doesn't really defeat the float quality of the material by twisting while wrapping. It appears more dense but actually puts more material on the hook and could actually improve the float. In all liklyhood it improves the casting by cutting down the flat air catching body if not wrapped. IMHO
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