Stonefly/hopper wing material
While working in the garden, found some landscape fabric at Home Depot that makes real nice stonefly and hopper wings. This stuff has the texture of Tyvek (not the black plastic mesh material), comes in a dark brownish color, cuts easily, doesn't seem to fray. Can't remember how much it cost, but I've just got scraps left from mulching and have enough to last a long time. A full roll would supply enough material for a plague of locust of Biblical proportions.
Regards,
Scott
I'll have to have a look at landscape fabric ScottP...one of these days i want to try to come up with a way to wing blue damsels that won't just wilt when wet. I have some fibreglass sheetrock tape that's giving me ideas...thinking i could use the landscape fabric on both sides of the sheetrock tape...gotta remember to try this so thanks for the idea.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
George, just by chance I tied up a blue damsel adult...been trying different things also...I had seen some tied with ostrich as the wing ...looks good but probably fragile ...so I went back to polypropylene that I have used but this time I applied some goop/toluene and stroked with my fingers into that flat upright look ....seems to be good and may hold up.
One of the really good fly tiers ....
.... I knew down in SE Idaho ( BB member gbflytier ) used and promoted Tyvek ( the white building wrap ) itself for wings on hoppers and stoneflies and such.
I saw a number of flies that Gary incorporated it in, and they were pretty neat. To the point that I actually acquired a couple square feet of the stuff from a local builder at his job site. Unfortunately, I never got around to using it in flies, so I can't speak from personal experience.
Tyvek, according to Gary, takes marking pen quite nicely. So you can pretty much control ( depending on your color perception and artistic ability ) what kind of wings you put on your critters.
John
P.S. Scott - it occurs to me that if Tyvek takes color really well, you could color the underside of the wings to the natural, and put a hi-vis color on at least part of the top of the wing for visibility, or even just leave part of the top white ??
The fish are always right.
That's a good idea too ducksterman, especially coating the matl. to make it stay together. When you say polypro, do you mean sheet matl. or strands like zylon or such? I'm wanting to make small blue damsels for bass at the lake. It's a riot when they start jumping 2-2.5 feet out of the water trying to get the damsels...i want to let the breeze carry the fly off the surface to see if i can get the bass to come out of the water for it.
Wifey just heard me mumbling about 'damsel wings' and asked 'what the heck are you doing' ? Came up with something called 'organza'...now i've got to say, this could work on its own. wondering if this is what i saw at Albany two years ago and the tyer was very lightly burning/melting the edges of the wings to keep them from fraying when casting? Looks like i've got work to do.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
John, was typing when you posted. Thanks for reminding me that i have some tyvek to work with too. Might be another good way to go for small blue damsel wings...prolly won't fray at all. Marking them a faint gray might be the ticket. Jeekers, so many patterns to tye all of a sudden...i need to find time between flyfishing and yardwork to tye. Oh wait, that's what night is for.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
John,Originally Posted by JohnScott
That's an interesting idea, I'll tie some up and see how they look. For the golden stones I'm tying, I don't think visibility will be as much of an issue as with the skwalas. The ones I've seen were pretty "active" so I'm tying them much bushier; color is a lot easier to see than the dull olive of the skwalas, too. I know you had great success with your FEB for the golden stone hatch; I hope you'll give some of mine a try.
Regards,
Scott
Helium filled ...
.... thingamabobbers, or whatever they are called, for an airborn fly and a high flying indicator !!
John
The fish are always right.
It will be a while 'til the golden stones ...
... are out, but I'll be tying on one of yours, for sure, as soon as they make the scene.
John
The fish are always right.
Not.
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
.... thingamabobbers, or whatever they are called, for an airborn fly and a high flying indicator !!
John
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