Okay, I’ve got a pretty basic question. It’s been a challenge for me to get my foam flies (beetles, hoppers, gurgle pops) to have legs that stick straight out to the side. Anybody got any tips for making the rubber legs look good? This seems so basic to me, yet I really struggle with it. Most of the time, the foam pushes the legs down and I end up with a droopy-looking fly.
Thanks for the help!
Zac
a few suggestions…material management. proper time and place to attach rubber. use of thinner foam strips so’s the foam doesn’t wrap around the hook so much. attach legs outside the foam.
I used to try figure eighting rubber legs in but it seems easier to just lay the legs right on top of the hook parallel with it, make a loose wrap or two to hold them in place a bit, then tighten the thread up and pull the legs into position on the sides of the fly. Might not be the look your going for but it makes adding legs easy for me. Each strand of rubber gives you two legs on one side of the fly. I’m not sure if this is clear or not so if you can’t picture it let me know and I’ll try to post some pictures later today or tomorrow some time.
… I have the same “problem” you describe with some of my better ( more effective ) patterns, Zac.
But it seems to me that those patterns are effective, in part, because the legs do droop down and create a lot of movement and action in the fly / for the fishies. Low riding terrestrials ( and stoneflies ) are probably easier prey for the fish than perky, high riding, leg strutting, about-to-escape bugs.
The droopy leg models might not look as good when shown to other fishermen, in the flesh or via the internet, but when it gets down to what matters …
Tie your fly,couple extra wraps where you want the legs. Tie in the legs with wraps in the center,with two hands pull one set af legs toward your body and one set away. You should have a four nice legs two on each side.BILL
heres a tutorial i did on another board for a foam spider
just omit the tail and use all black materials and you have a beetle
similar to this one
you can also fold a strand of rubber leg around the tying thread and make a wrap or two around the hook shank. then position the rubber leg to the side of the shank. repeat the process for the other side
If all else fails or to replace legs that have been torn off you can use a large needle to pull a single strand of rubber through the fly. Repeat as desired and put a drop of superglue at each entry/exit point to seal up fly and hold legs.
Don’t tie the legs on, sew them in with a wide-eyed rubberleg needle:
To make a rubberleg needle I heat the eye of a sewing needle to orange-yellow with a cigarette lighter.
Then I use needle nose pliers to jamb the still-glowing eye down onto the point of another needle.
Then you have a rubberleg needle. Couldn’t live without it.
I really like the way you did the pix with print for your tutorial.
Gives me an idea for doing my next FOTW. Wouldn’t have thought of it without your post, but I am pretty sure that I have what I need on my computer to edit my pix to include the tying instructions on the photos the way you did.
Thanks much for the idea.
John
kid,
sorry late to the thread.
I had the same prob trying to tie the girdle bug, I hated my legs were “catycorner” from each otherl not parallel. Also, I used extra legs just for fun. To my amazement, the fish seemed to not mind. Im thinking a bird could drop a mangled bug… the fish make the final judgement, and they are never wrong, as john says. But great tips from the responses for me to try. Thanks
Zac,
While it may be for a different pattern (the Cap Spider), this man shows an excellent technique for tying in rubber legs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzZekzILGRI
The Cap Spider is basically a sinking spider pattern and is an excellent summer pattern for bream, especially around over handing bruch and on the weed lines. Good video for showing a very effective way to tie in rubber legs.
Jim Smith
I usually don’t worry too much about it. When a real bug splats onto the water the legs don’t stay perfect either. I worry more about tying them in nice and tight so those pesky panfish can’t pull 'em out too easily.
Thanks for all the responses! I’ve got some good ideas now that I’ll have to try out.
I was attempting to dress some of John Scott’s “Rubber Legs Stonefly Nymphs” that was the “Fly of the Week” article a couple of weeks back, and ran into the same problem of alignment of the legs, being extended out to the side of the hook shank and slanted toward the back of the hook.
It only took me 4 attempts, to correct the problem…
I attached the rubber legs to the side of the hook shank, slightly forward of their position, and then secured the the rubber leg along the side axis of the hook shank, with tight wraps of thread. I repeated the procedure for the other side (this is where a rotary vise comes into play).
After securing the rubber legs on both sides of the hook shank, I continued my wrapping of the chenille forward, while holding the tips of the rubber legs tight against the side of the previous chenille wraps, making sure that my first wrap of chenille is tight against the previous secured chenille.
All legs should slant toward the rear of the hooks on both side with the same angle, and be jaunting outward from the side of the hook shank.
After completing the fly pattern, the last step is to hold the side legs in a thumb-finger pinch, and snip the legs on one side at the the same time is one cut of the scissors.
Zac: I will send you some of the “Rubber Leg Stoneflys”, along with your terrestrials flies, from the Terrestrial Swap… Parnelli
I’m guessing you want legs at more than one location on the body. Let me make three suggestions: