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Floss?
I am getting very confused. I have been playing around with tying a few North Country Spiders. They all call for floss, but being a neophyte, I have none, so I just use thread. Thinking it would be good to do it right, I did some research on what floss is. Enter confusion. Some recipes call for floss, but the material seems to look like thread. Is this just a naming thing? Then there is the Danville floss that looks like thread in 4 strand or single. Add to that stuff like super floss that looks much bigger and doesn't even come on a spool. So what the heck is floss?
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Fly tying terms can be confusing and overlapping. I think it is easy for a new tyer to feel like you do. When you enter on FAOL on the left side is a menu. Click on Fly Tying then fly tying terms, then look up "Floss" and you should find:
Floss:
Any of the shiny and colorful materials made from silk, rayon, nylon or other plastic materials used for body building in fly tying. Known also as body silk, it is available in many colors.
Hope this helps.
Tim
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Tim,
Thanks alot. There is so much info on this site, I never even noticed the fly tying terms section. Thanks JC and LF.
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The floss called for in traditional North Country spider patterns would be Pearsall's Marabou silk floss. Many of the patterns use Pearsall's Gossamer silk thread rather than floss. Google can find a handful of shops where you can buy it over the 'net.
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If you cannot find the Pearsall's or don't like the price try your nearest craft or fabric store--lots of very acceptable substitutes-don't worry about the looks you get from the staff when they ask what you want and why you want it!!
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Unless you are a stickler for using the called-for materials, other materials can work for a body as well. I use some flat nylon tying thread that can wrap to a very smooth body. It just takes a few more layers to build the body up.
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Thanks everyone. I think I will go non-traditional after I saw the pricetag on the Pearsalls floss. :roll: I like my attempts with 6/0 thread so far. We will see what the fish think of them. I went fishing on the St Regis one day last summer. There was no surface activity, so I tried several nymphs, and subsurface patterns to no avail. Not that my nymphing skills are much to get excited about in any case, and that probably had the most to do with it. I was walking back to my car when another fellow showed up. I decided to watch for a while to see how he did. He was fishing what looked like a large partridge and orange. maybe a #10. He would drift it through a run while hand twist retrieving. The hand twist would impart a pulsing action to the wings. Long story short, he caught about 10 fish in as many minutes. I never did talk to him, he moved off upstream, and seemed quite involved in his fishing. Not knowing what a spider was, I just chalked it up to my vast inexperience. Then when I started tying I stumbled upon a few spider patterns and saw the P&O, a lightbulb went on.
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I have been substituting Uni-Stretch for floss in most of my flies lately
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The only problem with using subs. for the silk floss is the color when wet. For example the recipe for the Professor calls for primrose yellow silk, this looks like light olive when wet not yellow. So be prepared to experiment. Dan
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BearLodge Angler, a sponsor here sells Pearsall's Gossamer silk and other brands of floss. Here is a link to their website. http://www.bearlodgeangler.com/thread.htm