Nymph Skin Detached Bodies, cracked it, with thanks to Scott.

[AlanB]

Foam makes good detached bodies, it is easy to shape, and readily available. One of its great advantages is that it is soft.

Years ago I was at a talk given by Dr Malcolm Greenhaugh, where he explained that fish will reject a hard fly much faster than a soft one, giving us a reduced chance of hooking the fish. It has always stuck with me. It is also possible that a large fly tied on a large hook can provide the fish with leverage to get free once hooked. These are some of the reasons I like detached bodies for larger flies. Another is that, if you tie a large dry on a large hook, the hook needs to be light wire. If you tie the same fly with a detached body you can use a shorter stouter hook, and still have less steel in the fly.

The great problem I have with foam for detached bodies is the causality rate. If you are going to fish these flies you need to tie a lot of them. Flies like Oliver Edwards' Mohican May, often will be beyond use after only a fish or two. There had to be a better material.

For years I have been using Nymph Skin from Virtual Nymph. For those who do not know it, it is a Latex like strip that is quite thick, available in two sizes (3mm and 4.5mm) and a large range of colours. Unlike latex it does not harden and fall apart over time. Perhaps because of the name Nymph Skin I have never seen it used for dry flies. I started to question this. Why could it not be used for dry flies? I started to experiment.

Foam detached bodies are often made on a needle. Try as I might I couldn't make a detached Nymph Skin body on a needle. That's not quite true, I made loads. What I couldn't do was get the darn things off the needle in one piece. Yes I did try greasing the needle first, I also tried graphite, and talc. In the end I rejected the needle method.

Then I thought about many foam bodied fly SbSs Scott has done. The ones with wound foam and CA glue offered a possibility. CA glue though wasn't the answer, the technique is. Deer Creek make a flexible UV resin that works well with Nymph Skin Called Diamond Flex. Combining these two can produce some interesting detached bodies.

Mayfly size 10 Kamasan B100

Adult stone fly size 10 Kamasan B100

Caddis Fly size 16 Daiichi 1160

Once you have the body what you add to it is up to you. I went a little mad with the stone fly. The other two are intended as fishing flies.
There is a SbS for tying these detached bodies here.
Cheers,
A.

[Joe Billingsley]

Interesting, Alan. Beautiful flies. Does the Nymph Skin float pretty well?

Joe

[AlanB]

Its not buoyant like foam but, it stays up well. One pattern by Steve Thornton has a small airspace in it made by adjusting the tension as you wind the Nymph Skin. It clings to the underside of the surface by the "bubble" so it is not a heavy material. It also holds together very well when you wind, so the voids in the bodies help it float.

Cheers,
A.

[ScottP]

Alan,

Beautifully tapered bodied (something I can't consistently produce with the foam); thanks for a great SBS and neat technique.

Regards,
Scott

[AlanB]

Thank you Scott, without seeing the wound foam bodies in your Step by Steps I wouldn't have come up with this.

Cheers,
A.

[ScottP]

Alan,

Your very welcome. Going to give it a try this way, using foam, when I get back home next week.


Regards,
Scott