Ribbing on any fly looks neat.
Whether it's needed to help hold fragile
body materials in place or just for
appearance' sake, I like it. Dry
flies, emeragers, nymphs, and wet
flies look a lot more like the natural
with some kind of ribbing. I believe
ribbing adds significantly to the
appearance and effectiveness of any fly
as the natural insects are almost always
obviously segmented in some manner. Even
though the patterns books may not call
for it, I add ribbing to a lot of my
personal dubbed-body dry flies. The
addition of the ribbing helps to preserve
the dubbed-body silhouette and increases
the life of the fly. You can use just
about anything you want for ribbing on any
fly. The only requirement is that the
material function in the manner you want,
or in the manner required by the pattern
recipe you're using.
Monocord, single-strand floss, button thread,
carpet thread, V-Rib (colored with a Pantone
marker), Swanundaze, Larva lace, oval and
flat metallic tinsel, and nearly any kind
of copper, brass, or silver wire are all
common ribbing materials. There are dozens
of others as well - use your imagination.
One hint about colors of threads for ribbing:
always be aware that lighter colors such as
cream and yellow tend to turn nearly invisible
when dressed with floatant or when wet in the water.
You'd be well advised to reverse body colors
on these flies so that the body is light and
the ribbing dark. The ultimate ribbed-body
effect is achieved with the use of natural or
dyed goose or turkey biots and stripped and
dyed hackle quills. ~ AK
Credits: From Production Fly
Tying Second Edition, by A.K. Best,
Published by Pruett Publishing Company.
Please check out the Fly Tying Section, on the Bulletin Board, here at FAOL too.
If you have any questions, tips, or techniques; send them to
publisher@flyanglersonline.com
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