silk thread

[chusha]

I found silk thread for sell on ebay.
Is it used for tying flies (and how?) or just rod winding? Where else is it avaiable besides ebay. Not to much of it there, either.
Thanks!

[RonMT]

I have a big supply of white and black silk thread and have had it for many years. I do not know were you can get it anymore? We used it for many years for tying. Now we have many threads that are better, smaller in Dia. and stronger for the size.
I still use it when tying Catskill flies for plates and such but that is the only time that I use it. It is a good thread but there are just to many out now that are better. Ron

[Donald Nicolson]

Silk thread is still the best for soft hackle flies. It is easily obtainable from many suppliers and the best is probably Pearsall's Gossamer.
I use it all the time for most of my dries and nymphs as well.
I think you are going to get many replies agreeing with me.

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Donald/Scotland

[gadabout]

There are different silk threads available for fly tying as well as rodbuilding.

[Buddy Sanders]

Donald,

I know about the whole 'tradition' thing.

You state, however, that 'silk thread is still the best for soft hackle flies'.

I'm someone who's never even SEEN silk thread, so can you elaborate on what properties of silk thread make it more desirable or 'better' for any particular type of fly?

I tie/fish lots of soft hackle flies, they work well, but always looking for any advantage...

Thanks,

Buddy

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[This message has been edited by Buddy Sanders (edited 08 February 2005).]

[RG/AR]

I've never used silk thread either, but one of the supposed properties is very interesting to me....supposedly, silk doesn't change color when wet.....this alone would make it very desirable to me.

[Donald Nicolson]

Maybe I should have used the term I normally use 'Spiders'. When I tie a lot of my spiders and the others I mentioned, the patterns have bodies that are just the thread or are touch dubbed with the thread showing through. Silk, as was mentioned, keeps its colour but also shows subtle changes when waxed, for example, the yellow becomes a nice pale olive for the 'Greenwell's Glory' series for flies.
All the other colours can show similar results.
Also I really like using the silk and do so on almost all sizes of fly from 12 downwards. There are other excellent threads on the market and I do use them but the question was about silk and there was an assumption that silk was not much used and difficult to find.
From what I have read on this and other BBs, silk is used as much in the U.S. as it is still used here in the U.K.
If anyone wants a copy of Pearsall's latest colour list, via attachement, I would be willing to obliged.
p.s. Sorry friends I shall not be able to send any copies of Pearsall's list at the moment, it appears that the file with the info has disappeared due to my recent PC breakdown. I will try to re-obtain as soon as possible.

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Donald/Scotland

p.s. Here is a spider, a modern version of 'McCaskie's Green Cat' using touch dubbed Green Highlander SLF chopped small.





[This message has been edited by Donald Nicolson (edited 09 February 2005).]

[AlanB]

I'm with Donald on this Silk is the "traditional" thread used on many of the spider patterns used this side of the pond. Waxing the thread can create some very subtle colour variations also the flies take on a life of there own in the water. Here are a couple of examples of mine. the Hare's Lug 'n' Plover is a very old traditional fly the second is an olive dressing I use on rivers where the olives are a little pailer than the Greenwell's Glory

I'll agree with Donald on this, too. I use Pearsall's on soft hackles and love it. I'll try to remember my soft hackle box next time I see you Ron and I'll show you why I like it.


Mike

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There is no greater fan of flyfishing than the worm.


Patrick McManus

It is somewhat deja vu, that "Soft Hackle Wet Flies, are now back in the forefront of fly tying interest. When they are most likely, the first fly style used, for fly angling on streams and stillwater.

Soft Hackle Wet Flies were shoved, off to the side, when Dry Flies became the rage, in the 1880's. And many Wet Fly Anglers were shunned and even banned from their favorite fishing waters, for their use.

Soft Hackle, is such a simple pattern when first tried, but there is more then what is first seen! As a Fly Tier progresses into the art of the Soft Hackle, the nuance (a shade of difference: a delicate variation (as in tone or meaning) is soon discovered.

The use of silk thread in the construction of the fly, increases, this nuance to a level that can be staggering to properly comprehend. The possiblities of new patterns and their variations, explode into a multitude of patterns that are almost impossible to properly understand or categorize.

To think that such a work of art almost disappeared for the fly fishing vocabulary, if it was not for those fly angler's that kept shouting from the wilderness, and waiting for the day, when the "Soft Hackle Wet Fly" would again be discovered by a new generation, and saved from extinction.

~ Parnelli

"Rare is the new idea, instead it is an old idea, rediscovered!"






[This message has been edited by Steven H. McGarthwaite (edited 09 February 2005).]