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One of the recent Fly Tyer magazines has an Oliver Edwards article on tying small stoneflies that uses Flexibody. I don't think there is a U.S. source for that material, as a google search failed to turn up anything useful. Substitutions haven't been satisfactory. (Not ruling out my skill as a tier).
Does anyone know the definitive story on this? Is it strictly a British Isles/Continental material?
good luck finding it. scud back is an alternative according to a few sites. you would need to cut the flexibody into strips anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigFlatBrook
scud back
http://www.docsflybox.com/sunshop/im...e_1266_4SB.jpg
BigFlatBrook,
The definitive story, eh? ;-)Quote:
Does anyone know the definitive story on this? Is it strictly a British Isles/Continental material?
Well, here goes.
In the late eighties a Dutch tier called Hans de Groot developed and started to distribute paper-backed sheets of a product he named Flexibody. Mid nineties Hans de Groot suffered a fatal heart attack, and production of the product ceased.
Hans' son, Milosj, may or may not have restarted producing the sheets. I will see what I can find out on that score, and if so, will report back here.
Cheers,
Hans W
I'm asking partly because scud back doesn't really achieve the desired effect in my mind.
That's interesting information. I think Oliver Edwards is on record saying that flexibody is the most important innovation in materials of the past 25 years -- or something like that. He must have a secret cache of the stuff.
Why would Fly Tyer publish a pattern that depends on materials that's so difficult to obtain?
I like those little stonefly patterns. Those little stoneflies always show up in my local sampling. Mostly I've been tying slim-bodied hare's ears for them, but I'd like to try something different.
A few years ago I picked up some of the origional European flexibody at Fly N Field in Glen Ellyn, IL. You could try giving them a call. Someone is currently selling a product in the US called flexibody. J Stockard fly fishing has it available right now. I bought a bunch from Stockard and it wasn't the same cool colors as the origional stuff and the packaging was very different but it was the same material. WAPSI distributes a product called thin skin that is very similar (if not identical) to flexibody and the thin skin comes in some cool patterns like bustard and fly specs.
I do see that on the J. Stockard web site. It didn't show up on a google search. Thin Skin might be the identical material, I just don't know.
Contact Steve Korbay at Fly Tying Specialties (http://www.flytyingspecialties.com/). He carries Flexibody along with a lot of other specialty materials from the other side of the pond. I cannot vouch for the authenticity, but supposedly this is the real McCoy.
That web site has a lot of interesting materials. Even though I'm definitely not a realistic tier.Quote:
Originally Posted by whatfly
I was able to find some Thin Skin locally, and was actually able to produce some stonefly nymphs that I was happy with. It wasn't the right color, but a prismacolor marker did a pretty good job with them.
I like those patterns. Hope they catch some trout for me.
Rocky Mountian Dubbing out of Lander, WY is a distrubutor of Flexi-body, flexi-tail, and flexi-wrap. We also have their products listed on our web site. I think Wapsi also offers the flexi-body.
Bill