Wire Bodied Flies Here To Stay?

[Riverdancer]

Hello all,

I was looking through a fly catalog the other day, and noticed how many people are taking standard patterns like the pheasant tail and prince nymph, and adding a wire body to create a "new" fly. This is definately a HOT trend in trout flies. My question is: Is this trend here to stay, or will it die like the poxy back trend of years past? Seems like wire makes cool looking fly bodies that weigh enough to get them down where the fish are, but are they effective? I tied a few for the heck of it, and I have pictures below. Thanks for any opinions.







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Jude
Small flies work best. Elephants eat peanuts.
www.customflys.com

[Steve Molcsan]

Wire dose make a nice looking effective
fly. Yours do look very good.

Myself I perfer to tye with quills,
AK style. If you prepare the quills
correctlly they are very easy to use
and effective on the water.

Steve

[Yaffle]

Riverdancer, I have not found flashy attractor Nymphs very effective for fussy trout. If the trout are not fussy they'll hit a lot of other patterns also. I have for the most part stayed away from shinny and bright wire, flash etc in most of my Nymphs. The exception being as a rib over dubbing to give a segmented look, then it is a fine gold of fine silver rib.
I've just never had confidence in them.
Who knows, they may be around for awhile, but I won't keep the trend alive.
Give me a Hares Ear or PT over a Copper John any day. -Yaf

[This message has been edited by Yaffle (edited 30 March 2005).]

[flymaker2]

No opinion, other than I think that the flies you posted look super!
Rich

[Gnu Bee Flyer]

I like your flies , nice job . Wish I was that far advanced in my tying . My hope is the fish will bust a gusset laughing at my flies and accidently bite down on one .

I have a question .... at the local tye in , several of the vetran tiers have said things like ... trout like the feel of soft bodied flys . Or soft hackle flies taste better to the trout . ( which brings up the seperate question , what does a metal , feather , and glue creation taste like ?) I have tied and successfully fished chronomids that had wire wraps and hard varnish finish . You know hard as a rock . didn't seem to bother the fish . Do you think that there is merit to the soft is better theory or do you think it jest don't matter ?
Just curious .

[Jackster]

>>wire makes cool looking fly bodies that weigh enough to get them down where the fish are<<

That's enough reason for me!

[barel fly]

Long live the Copper John!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



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Tight lines,

Jeremy Barela
www.customflys.com

[Riverdancer]

Thanks Steve and Rich. When you tie thousands of flies per year, you get pretty good at the basic techniques.

Gnu Bee,

I think there's something to that saying. I think that's the reason fish hold onto eggs more often, and some of them take them deep. I think the softer materials may not get rejected as quickly as the harder ones.


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Jude
Small flies work best. Elephants eat peanuts.
www.customflys.com

I've been fishing with wire-bodied flies like this for several years now and I think they are here to stay because they really work. The one you tied in the middle, the pheasant tail looking one, is absolutely DEADLY. You can also tie it with rubber legs, the fish won't leave them alone.

I'm not sure what you mean by "the poxy back trend" fading out, and isn't the copper john a poxy-back fly with a wire body? The copper john has been one of the the best selling nymphs for many years. Just because the newer patterns use 2 different wire colors doesn't really change anything in terms of effectiveness. Bottom line, these flies work and they are not a fad, just a natural extension of fly-tying knowledge. And you won't be asking this qeustion anymore at the end of the trout season - I guarantee it!

Wire is here to stay.
Copper Johns look nice and are very easy to tie, but more importantly they catch fish. Mr. Barr's hopper/copper/dropper system is deadly on all the rivers I've fished and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Long live the CJ!!!!

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Chris