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I've never tied with biots for the body of a dry fly. I have a bunch of goose biots in a few colors and wild turkey biots.
I need help with these 3 questions:
(1) Before use, do you soak 'em in water or other liquid?
(2) After the body is completed do you like to coat them with, say, nail polish? Does it improve durability? Is it worth the effort?
(3) Does the fly float better/worse than a dubbed body fly that has been treated with flotant?
Thanks for the help.
Peter
I tie many, many patterns with turkey biot bodies. Even my Adams' are tied with gray turkey biots for bodies. In response to your questions:
1. I do not soak them in water prior to tying. They are far less brittle than quill stems, which do require being soaked in water.
2. I do not coat the bodies with any cements/liquids. They are quite durable just tied on and wrapped. In fact, I've never had one break and become unwrapped.
3. I would say floatation is fairly close to the same. If anything they may float a little longer since they don't become water-logged, but they difference is negligible. I do think it makes a more life-like body than a dubbing body however. I've had fish refuse a dubbed body BWO and take the same pattern tied with a biot body.
Hope this helps,
-Darryl
Harry Mason has a nice tutorial on biots on his site.
http://www.troutflies.com/tutorials/biot/ You will obtain very different effects by wrappping the biot on one side or the other.
I place mine on a warm wash cloth if they are brittle. I don't coat the body, but I do place a small amout of head cement on the area I am about to wrap the biot over. This just adds a little durability IMO.
I use them for wet flies and dry flies.
http://www.flyfishsouth.com/upload/stev ... CF0002.JPG
http://www.flyfishsouth.com/upload/stev ... dQuill.jpg
I use them alot for biot midges and never soak them and I don't coat them with anything. So far, I have not had any problems with the durability factor. I also use them in the copper john and prince nymphs and stone nymphs. At Charlie Craven's site there is a good recipe for the copper john pattern that has a neat, unique and very effective way of tying in the biots for the tail. Works better than the other methods I have seen.
I tie most of my mayfly patterns with stripped goose biot, I really like the segmentation you get.
Unlike some of the others that responded, I do like to pre-soak them. While they are fairly durable I tie a lot of really small stuff (size 22-24) and find that pre-soaking prevents tear out and splitting. To pre-soak them I strip a dozen or so biots and lay them between the folds of a moist paper towel, this keeps them pliable, but not soaking wet. 10 minutes or so and they are ready to use.
I like to coat the wrapped body with Dave's FlexCement (my cement of choice). It does not take much time and it makes the body pretty much indestructable. It also seals any voids in the body, so the fly can't absorb water. I find it worth the effort. I apply the cement before I tie in any wings or additional parts, this means I am less likey to screw up and coat the wrong part.
Your third question is a little more complicated. The tail and hackle do most of the floating, the body might contribute a little on really big flies. Look at the classic catskills pattern and you will see that the body doesn't even touch the water. A new fly fresh out of the box, with bone dry dubbing will absorb more floatant than a non-porous body such as biot. However, after a few casts, or fish caught, and that same dubbed body can absorb a lot of water and fish slime. I often need to stop, squeeze the water out and apply a fresh coat of dry float powder. The biot body by comparison floats the same after dozens of fish, it doesn't need to be dried out. It also is easier to rinse out the fish slime after a hook up. Do I notice a huge difference? Not really, A well tied dry fly will float and fish well, the hook wire size, hackle and tail materials seem to have a bigger influence.
I tend to use the biot bodies because I like the way they look, hard to beat that natural segmentation.
I layer the "pulled" biots between two damp sponges. I find having open containers of any liquid on my bench is an invitation to screams of anger and dismay.I re-enforce large (size 14 and > ) bodies by ribbing them with 7x or 8x tippit.
the segmentation produced by biots is by far the best
http://www.troutflies.com/hoh/march_brown.jpg
(1) Before use, do you soak 'em in water or other liquid?
I used to just soak them in my mouth while starting the tread, etc. Probably not a good idea, though.
I use a lot of biot's in my tying. I buy them by the dozen packs of one color. I do not soak mine at all. I do over wrap them with clear mono thread you can get in your local fly fishing store.
I also use a thread that is like mono and comes in different colors. I get it from a friend in Japan you can not buy it in the states. It is very nice to use and looks great on the fly. It is about a 14/0. I like to over wrap my flies with something. I just think it makes a stronger fly.
If you take the time to look you will find that when using some quills you will get two different looks depending on the side that is up. ( large side of the feather being used here) Both look good but some people like one over the other. These are not the close large side biots but the regular longer biots on the mane part of the feather. These are great for small flies and easy to use.
Funny how things go. We were buying them from one company and now they are just sending the old biots on the small side of the feather not the whole feather. We searched hard and found another company that is selling the hole feather and they have great colors. I just bought 60 packages of them in different colors.The name of the Compnay is Natures Spirit. Very nice feathers. I get nothing for this. Ron
I've never found a need to soak biots in any way but I do reinforce them as I tie. I use the tying thread to chase the biot as you wrap forward , overlapping each wind of biot with a thread wrap. The thread is covered by the next wind of biot. Works for me and do believe it provides an extra measure of durability. I believe this method is from one of A.K. Best's books but don't recall which.
-ParaHopper