Another boa attempt

Got the idea for this from Beattys’ book on “rotary tying”.

What do you think?

what is it :confused:

try some short eyelash yarn

http://singlebarbed.com/2009/01/26/it-whispers-to-me-telling-me-to-do-bad-things/

It looks synthetic.

Its BOA yarn

http://www.bernat.com/product.php?LGC=boa\

Rick it looks like this thing I had as a kid, it was attached to some thin mono, and you did tricks with it by pulling the mono.

I think it will catch fish, probably big ones.

Eric

Anything yellow, long, and wiggly with lots of moving parts sounds like a good concept to me

Eric, they still sell those things. Ive seen them in gift shops in Florida complete with a video showing how to do different tricks

Hey Rick;

Interesting looking fly, looks like it has of movement!

Is the tail formed with a dubbing loop? I can’t quite figure out how the red thread got in there.

Wayneb

Red part is wire.

The yarn is twisted with the wire to form a wing. The Beatty’s do it with feathers in their book…

Nice application, Rick! I’m curious about how it moves in the water…and what the effect of ‘bending’ it into different positions will have…got to play with that one too…

Buddy

A Dubbing brush??

Wayneb

Sort of…

What you do is pull a loop of wire off the front of a hook, then tie in the feather/yarn/whatever (or vise versa, not critical which you do first). Hold both together in front of the hook and rotate the vise to spin the two together. You can then cut the ‘wing’ off to tie in later, or just fold it back and tie it in after it’s constructed.

I did a few of these with feathers, but I just caught both the wire and the feather stem in the vise jaws…faster and you get the same results.

Buddy

I wonder what would happen if you furled boa or eyelash yarn like you would a leader. That might leave a more “floppy” tail. I’ll try some tonight just for fun.

I was wondering the same, ol’ blue, so you nudged me and I just tried it…works like a charm…and without a wire there has to be more motion:cool:.

Cool! I have some interesting ideas for some new 'gill flies using that method.

Did you use boa or eyelash?

My understanding is that eyelash is used as a general designation…e.i. eyelash type …and boa is a type of eyelash…I could be wrong.

Actually I used one that is very similar to Boa…but has a stiffer more shiny fiber…it is one that was out early and has been discontinued because of flammability…sorry I threw away labels and don’t remember the actual name.

The material looks like Lion Brand Fun Fur to me. I have some in Blk, Brn, Wht, Chrat. Never thought of using it this way, Have to give it a try.

Rick, you inspired me to do a quick test tonight and took some quick (and not so good) pictures. I hope you like the results as well as I do.

This is boa furled. It gave a very full, furry body. I like it a lot!

This is eyelash furled. It took a lot of extra time to pick all of the threads free but filled in the sparse eyelash threads nicely.

I did both of these using only a bodkin and hackle pliers. I tied one end of the yarn down, then spun it with the hackle pliers. When done, I tied the other end even with the first, then allowed the material to reverse itself and stabilize, then it was just a matter of securing it to the back of the hook and returning the thread to the head to finish. Nothing fancy, just a test fly.
Overall, I’d say the technique is simple and made the material “fill in” much more than normal. I especially like the effect of the boa yarn furled. Perhaps a FOTW in the making? :rolleyes:

ol’ blue
It looks like you tied the furled material along the top of the hook shank…correct?

Could tie it in at the bend leaving one tag end and wrap the material up the shank…

Just another thought…

Yes, for these, I tied in at the head, then at the bend after furling. It could have been wrapped around the hook as well, making sort of a mega-chenille.
I think you might be able to build premade furled yarn to the length you need, and then use it in any way you can imagine. Clamp one end in your rotary vice, spin it, bring the other end up to the first and secure it with a drop of super glue, and you have a furled yarn strip.