suggested material sub?

[spoof85]

Hey Guys,

hey everyone, sorry i haven't been on in next to an eternity.. family heath issues and such...

i haven't had the time to break out the fly rod yet this year, so i have been doing a lot of spin fishing. That being said, ive been using my french spinners i dressed up awhile ago, and let me tell you, they are killers in the river and small streams!

OK, down to business... i dress the heck out of them.... crystal flash, mallard flank and dry fly hackle on the treble, (the dry fly hackle takes the focus off the thread wraps and helps hide the barbs of the treble.) then, marabou and crystal flash pressed around a ball to hide the joint and blend the transition, and finally some more dry fly hackle pressed between a ball and the barrel to finish, it helps act as a buffer for the spinner blade... the last bit of hackle (the blade buffer) is getting destroyed after about 2-3 hours of heavy use.. I'm assuming its due to the spinner blade and rocks, since I've been fishing very shallow water...

any suggestions on a material that would withstand more abuse then dry fly hackle? and (hopefully) respond close to the same in the water?

any input is good input,

the spooften

oh yeah, here is a picture... the silver blades are getting a lot more response so far...

the spinner.jpg

tight lines everyone!

[Alberto]

Maybe a synthetic material like EP fibers or KF in a dubbing loop?

Alberto

[melk]

Nice use of materials. Good looking spinners.
Mike

[whatfly]

There's pretty much nothing you can put there that is not going to get beaten up eventually. You have it sandwiched between a moving and non-moving part by the look of the photo, so it is going to be ground up eventually, no matter what it is, I would suspect. Have you tried anchoring the front bead with a thread dam and/or a bit of glue to minimize the grinding action?

[jay92]

How about some organza ribbon. Slice it up the middle and pick out the horizontal fibers. It will leave you with an organza "hackle". tie it in, put a good dollop of Zap a gap on, and wind it around. It will flair like hackle, but hopefully be more durable and add alittle flash as well. I use the same technique for collars on caddis pupa, and it has worked very well.

[Ray Kunz]

FWIW: poof85 has a good suggestion. I have done the same in dressing up Mepp's spinners for my wife.
In the past, her test results indicate that yellow and orange feather colors were better.