Found a new use for the torch for Clear Cure Goo!!!

[AllenOK]

Last week I bought a starter kit for Clear Cure Goo, with a tube of thick, a tube of thin, and the torch. I've tied a few flies with it, and have liked the results.

Last night, I started tying some Barr's Graphic Caddis flies. In chartreuse. When I took the first fly out of the vise, wouldn't you know it, but the darn thing tumbled and rolled off my finger, and fell. I didn't know if it fell into the trash bag I have on my vise, somewhere onto my desk, or somewhere on the floor. What's worse, I'm really anxious to find it, as I had two very curious cats snoozing under my desk. Last thing I need is for one of them to try and eat it....

I emptied my trash bag without finding it. I grabbed a flashlight and started shining that around on the carpet, hoping to catch a glint of reflected light off the holographic silver tag on the fly. No dice. Then, it hit me. This thing is fluorescent! I grabbed the UV torch from my kit, and started turning off all the lights in and around my bench.

I turned on my torch and started shining it around. Man, there's a lot of junk on the floor! I try to be as neat as I can, but wow! Little snippets of 70-denier chartreuse thread showed up like Size A thread. A chartreuse Silli-Leg glowed like it was on fire. Lots of little fluffs of white fur, marabou, UV Pearl Midge Flash, etc. I found a small fluorescent orange scud that I had dropped a few weeks ago when I was recycling old hooks. Then, I found the fly I had dropped, under my chair. Heaved a sigh of relief on that one!

[James Smith]

Great idea! I had to laugh when you mentioned all the"stuff" you found under your tying desk. Mine is the same way and it always scares me a bit when I find the odd hook that has slipped off of the desk. Just one more reason to crimp those barbs down when I pull the hooks out of their packages. A while back I published an article here on FAOL titled the Trash Trough. You can do a search for it and it will pop up. It's an alternative to a trash bag and works great as a "back stop" to catch the odd bead, hook or completed fly from ever reaching the floor. Anyway, thanks for sharing your idea.

Jim Smith

[Philly]

That's can be a problem for me.. This morning I'm putting my socks on I found a size 20 hook in one of my socks. I regularly sweep the floor around my tying desk with a magnet to pick up wayward hooks but I must have missed that one.

[Taz]

I'm like Philly. I keep a magnet about 3' in diameter with a long wooden handle. No more crawling around on my knees. Good use of the flashlight though Might come in handy when the item was metal.

[Silver Creek]

UV will also:

1. Make biological material glow in hotel rooms to check for cleanliness
2. Test bills for counterfeits - the currency strip glows.
3. Test fly tying materials in fly shops for flourescence/phosphorescence
4. Search for organisms

http://w3.marietta.edu/~biol/field_s...otes/glow.html

[gerri]

Hi Allen,
I am also in the market for a starter kit such as you described with a pen light but am having difficulty finding a source near me who can explain the differences between the various "goos" and lights. Might I ask where you obtained you kit and what the general price range is? I am not considering the $85-90 price range kits with the fancy lights. Thanks for your help.
gerri

[stabgnid]

UV lights will also makes scorpions glow at night !!
Steve-stabgnid

[Joe Billingsley]

gerri,

Everything you want to know about UV resins and torches:

http://www.flyfishfood.com/2015/10/u...-shootout.html

Joe

[AllenOK]

Gerri, I got my kit at Cabela's. $49.99 for the Thick and the Thin varieties of Goo, plus the light. Batteries not included. That torch is BRIGHT!

Stab, yeah, I knew that about Scorpions. Never tested it. At a previous house we lived in, we've seen 3 Scorpions. The first one was on the front porch. I tried to get my UV headlamp to see if I could get it to glow, but the critter scampered off before I could get back outside. The second one my MIL found and stepped on before I could get to it. The last one my daughter saw. She came screaming out of the bathroom about a Scorpion. I went in, looked around, didn't see anything. I asked my little girl where she had seen it. She pointed in the general direction and high-tailed it back to her room. I managed to find it. It was a baby! Not even 1/2" long. How she saw that little thing I'll never know.....

I've been testing various materials in my kit for UV. Would you all believe my Starling cape glowed just a bit? The "black" areas of the feathers gave a weak deep-purple glow, and the bright tips gave a bit of glow as well.