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I recently tried them out on panfish, and they were amazing!!
I tied them on a small jig hook 1/80 oz. with a wet hackle in the front.
The sunfish went absolutly nuts for the orange color.
The next step will be to split the tail down the middle in two.
Thanks for the great idea!!!!
chris
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hey Jeff, thanks for coming up with a way of using them and getting this thread started. i got a ball for about 50 cents a while ago at the mall, and couldn't figure out how to use it for a while. what i came up with though is just using them for legs. you cut a strand down the middle long ways, then cut those two strands down the middle. you end up with four translucent legs with incredible action. ive been having good success with them in foam beetles.
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Jeff, I have that too, but just the green ball. And ironically, since I've found a use for the ball it has disappeared. Fortunately I snipped a few extra strands last time...
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You guys are having too much fun. I need to go out and get some koosh ball for myself!
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Try um, you'll like um!
Hi Aileen,
The weenie balls are great fun. Try um, you'll like um. They're about the most fun that a fly tyer can have for a dollar. 8T :)
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My bad, I didn't realize they were so cheap!
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How long are the wiggly bits on the koosh balls you have? I measured the off-brand version I have just now and UNstretched, they're 1.25 inches long.
Stretched, they can reach a full twelve inches!
Here's a pic of the off-brand I have:
http://Thwack.smugmug.com/photos/343903453_9Lhvn-M.jpg
I put the bobbin on top to help give it a sense of scale. It's a fairly large diameter ball so I have lots of those little wiggly blue things to experiment with...
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Depends on the ball.
Hi Thwack,
I don't think that there is any such thing as an "off brand" weenie ball. They all seem to vary considerably by manufacturer. It doesn't look like any company has the market cornered on these toys. Incidentally, mine are made in China so they are probably toxic as hell and should be handled only with a full bio-hazard suit. :)
I have two sizes that I found for a dollar each in the local "Dollar Tree." The big one is called the "Two-Tone Eye Puffer Ball" and it's about 4.5 inches in diameter. The spikes on this ball are just a little short of an inch long. The other ball is called a "Two-Toned Flashing Puffer Ball" and this one approximately 3.5 inches in diameter. The spikes on this one are just a little short of 3/4 of an inch and are much thinner than above. Both will stretch almost to infinitely.
Hope this helps. Tie with whatever you can find; they all work. Take care. 8T :)
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I have a couple others that came from a different source. The blue one that I posted below came from WallyWorld last year. It was in a box near the cash registers and the box was marked, "Dog Toys". No way would I let my dog chew on this thing...the center is hollow and squishes really weird but I can't imagine it would stand up to a dog's chewing for more than a few seconds.
The others that I have are smaller but still have the hollow/balloon-like core. The smaller ones came from Michael's craft store and were near the register (so probably not something they usually carry I'm guessing). I picked up a pink ball and a beige (sort of a flesh-tone) ball.
Those three will likely tie an army of funny flies.
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I went to my tying desk to take a picture of my 3-legged weenie fly just now. I was going to add it to the thread on that fly but as you'll see below, I think my picture belongs better in this thread.
As I was hiking up the stairs to my tying area, I recalled the "San Juan Worm Ball" fly that was just posted in another thread...that got me thinking.
Why just 3 legs? Seems like this stuff should make a great alternative for the chenille used in the San Juan Worm Ball fly...much wigglier action in the water!
So, I played around a bit with merging those two concepts and came up with this:
http://Thwack.smugmug.com/photos/344379864_Asay2-S.jpg
There's one "leg" missing from the top, just behind the eyes. The body was getting kind of thick so I tied that last top leg in about the middle or so...then clipped off the excess....
When I tied the next one in (far side), I realized that the end should be left in tact...it made the front most "leg" for no extra effort. The near side was also left intact.
I added the heavy eyes to try to counteract the floatation of all those legs. I'm sure the legs will still win but I like the look (even if the San Juan Worm Ball doesn't have eyes). A lead underbody or beadhead would work just as well but those are much harder to add half-way through tying the fly when it dawns on you that some weight might be handy to have... :D
The rear-most legs are tied in about 1/3rd the way up the hook shank. They're tied in one at a time and counterwrapped to the rear of the hook. That makes it easy to just advance the thread right over them to lock them in then bring the thread back to the tie-in location and add the next rear leg...
The 2nd set of legs were tied in at about the 2/3rds point up the hook shank (maybe a little closer to mid-way) and counter-wrapped back one at a time the same as the rear legs.
The last set of legs ties in right on top of the second set. One at a time again to help keep the chaos to a minimum. I just pull them slightly and tie them back a bit to create separation between the ends of that leg...gives you two legs at once.
Pick where along the leg you want to tie it down to control the relative length of the rear part vs. the front part.
Add the eyes (or another set of legs like the last ones if you prefer), tie the thread head, and try to stop chuckling long enough to take a picture... :D