an extended body question

Hello,

There is a type of extended body that is made by wrapping long and fine dubbing on the needle with silicone caulk as the binder. It is said that it feels like rubber, is durable, and floats well. What do you think of its effectiveness as you experienced it? Do you have some tips to share about how to make it?

I appreciate your kindness.

It depends on your purpose. If only for catching fish, such pursuits are much too labor intensive for most perceived results. If for “the sake of the art” the more realistic you make it the closer you’ve come to acheiving your goal and anything goes because the critter will probably never see water . The best pursuit is to make some of each for it’s own purpose. Good luck.

Al Campbell did one in the Tying Series with
household caulk…check it out.


LadyFisher, Publisher of
FAOL

LadyFisher,

Thank you for your information, but I could not find what you mentined but deer hair and antron yarn extended body by Al.

Hi Adso…I tyed next to a gentleman this spring that tyed this style of body and he was kind enough to show me the method. In a nutshell, the dubbing is wrapped around a needle mounted in the vise without thread. You build up the taper to the size you want then coat the whole thing in thinned down flexament, usually 2 coats. After it dries, just carefully slide it off the needle and tie it to the hook. The silicone might be a bit more durable but sounds very messy and I would think it would have too be thinned down some.
If I’m not mistaken, the commercially available Tub Bodiz are made like this.
I tied a few but have not tried them on the water yet…good luck!..Jason
ps…I think the rackelhanen site has a tutorial on this style

I learn how to do this from Ralph Graves, and I must say it is very quick and very affective. You wrap dubbing around a large needle, back and forth till you have the diesered thinkness/tapper, then coat with Dave’s Flexament, carefully remove the body and then put in on the hook like you would a worm, through the hole in the middle. Tie it down and that all. To have tails you just add them after the first wrap.

Joe Fox

Joe,

To my knowledge(?), Ralph Graves was the first to come up with this method. I watched him demonstrate it years ago and the pattern he was tying was a Coffin Fly.

Allan

Adso the extended body you’re talking about does work real well for hexagena mayfly we call willow flys here in Alabama. I used them this summer and caught many smallmouth on wilson lake. They did not hold up as well as foam patterns I have tied but I perfer them to the foam. there is a site that has the instructions at [url=http://www.thefishguy.net/tyingflies.htm:0cd6f]www.thefishguy.net/tyingflies.htm[/url:0cd6f]

Larry

Buy the C&F Design extended body tool, brilliant results.

I have seen the CF design in tackle shops, but it just looks like a dubbing needle with some sort of pink adhesive in a bottle. I am assuming a dubbing needle and maybe pva glue would work ok.

Following the above link, in the article he uses silicon which must be messy. I have always found silicon difficult to work with.

I have had some success using a mirror and pva white adhesive. Squeeze some onto the mirror and spread it really thin. (If you want tails, this is the time to lay them on the edge!) Let it dry which takes about a minute or so and it goes clear and a rubbery colour. Just use your thumb or finger to begin to roll it at the bottom edge and roll it up. It comes off easy and makes good looking bodies. I have experimented and included dubbing while wet which was mostly successful. They are a bit floppy so I varnish mine with hard as nails. Of course you need to use waterproof adhesive otherwise they wont last long in water. hehe. You may be able to include trout attractant but of course that would be cheating!!

All joking aside they do make quick and easy bodies, very lifelike.

The C&F Tool is like a double ended dubbing needle, it also has a smaller needle to trap your dubbing before winding and dipping. I have got some trmendous tails since buying this tool, whether this is down to my new found confidence, the cement, the tool or a mixture of all these I’m not sure. But hell, it’s only money, better than my old habit of smoking.

Its quite expensive about ?25 GBP, and the adhesive bottle is not particularly big. What happens when that runs out?? Do they give an indication of what it is so you can replace it??

I have a friend here in Holland by the name of Henk Verhaar. He has been making those double needle jobbies by the dozen, and gave me one to try.

I am not that keen on extended body mayflies, but for the heck of it I will build me a couple \

Cheers,
Hans W


=== You have a friend in Low Places ===
http://www.danica.com/flytier

Mick, up to press I have had the tool a week and have played around and tied some really nice little fly’s. I am assured by the shopkeeper where I bought the tool from, that you can buy fresh supplies of the cement, Guide Flyfishing in the UK is the importer of C&F gear.

25 quid is 5 days ciggies for me, money well spent on the tool, and six weeks off

[imgMick up to press I have had the tool a week and have played around and tied some really nice little fly’s. I am assured by the shop that I bought the tool from that you can buy fresh supplies of the cement, Gide Flyfishing in the UK is the importer of C&F gear.

25 quid is 5 days ciggies for me, money well spent on the tool, and six weeks off

[This message has been edited by Longsider (edited 04 September 2005).]

Allen
From what he has told me he came up with it. I will be talking to him tonight and see how he came up with this way of doing it.

Joe

Sorry I wasn’t critisising your purchase. I almost was tempted myself when i saw it. It was just the shop that stocks it near here does not sell the spare adhesive, and it seemed a lot of money if I cannot get fresh supplies.

I am sure it can only be some form of standard glue. If its just PVA then ?25 would be a viable buy for the tool and new stocks of adhesive are readily available.

Dear folks,

I really appreciate your comments. Initially, I did not expect to get many replies as I think people are not familiar with silicone-dubbing hollow extended body but with deer hair or yarn extended body.

Joe,

If you can contact Ralph Graves, it would be happy to hear more about how he makes his extended body. That would be interesting and instructive.

Vinyl glues work the best as they help keep the elasticity of the hollow body. This will alow you to use other materials not yet commonly used. The picture(link since I don’t know how to post a pic on this forum ) was the very one used, with greater success, on the river than the traditional flys that are commonly used during a sulphar hatch. Sorry for the bad ty but the fishies had some fun with it
[url=http://photobucket.com/albums/b166/BenCochran/th_SulpharEB.jpg:c8f1c]http://photobucket.com/albums/b166/BenCochran/th_SulpharEB.jpg[/url:c8f1c]


Best Regards

[This message has been edited by BenC (edited 05 September 2005).]

Also, as side note: You don’t need to purchase the tool. This technique has been around from the early 1990’s. All you need is a quilting needle, that you can get from any sewing store. Purchase the desired diameter needle and I take it a step further and mold the end to help give me the proper shape. Apply a very thin coat of dubbing wax to help remove the finished HB from the needle after your have finished tying it. If you are using common dubbing, all you need to do is apply flexcement. I take it another step and seal the inner wall of the EB buy double wrapping the thread and then coating the threads thoughrly with the cement. This hepls secure a sealed air pocket within the tail.

The use of other materials will require vinyl cements. A very accomplished tyer and I are currently finishing a book on the EBs with many different patterns. I am not trying to self promote the book but add some other money saving tools that one can commonly find with spare change. My co-author won the MUSTAD SCANDINAVIAN OPEN competion with a first place finish with one of our patterns tyed in this way. The fly also fishes amazingly . [url=http://www.mustad.no/mso/:2770d]http://www.mustad.no/mso/[/url:2770d]

The picture [URL=http://www.mustad.no/mso/images/2005/mso05_sen_cat08_internett_thumb.jpg]

The tail is tyed with Moose Mane. I hope this helps some and I appologize if this came across as self promotion, didn’t mean it that way. A gentleman from Sweeden was one of the first to use this hollow body technique in the early 90’s.


Best Regards

[This message has been edited by BenC (edited 05 September 2005).]

[This message has been edited by BenC (edited 05 September 2005).]

Mick, didn’t think you were critisising my purchase not even crossed my mind. I find this BB interesting because we can all learn and add to the fabulous hobby that we have. Just at the moment trying to give up the dreaded weed has made me cash rich, whilst my Mrs is saying treat yourself with the money you would have spent on ciggies, I may as well get all these lovely toys, my good fortune with the extra spending money will end all to soon… I will be playing with the silicone, PVA and all methods of extended bodies, I think the flies look good and more importantly the fish seem to like them.

Regards

Andy