I’ve been doing some research on tube flies and have read lots of good info online - BUT - now I’m asking the experts at FAOL for help.
I’m looking for my winter tying project. Along with tying all my stand-by patterns and my new “must try in 2010” patterns, I want to experiment with tube flies. Here’s what I’m looking for:
Please post (with photos if possible) your recipe for a ‘tried-and-true’ trout size tube fly. I’m looking also for warmwater patterns. No saltwater patterns or pike patterns need apply.
I’m really interested in terrestrial, wet, nymph and streamer patterns that have been proven in tube designs.
I’m in PA, so “traditional size” would be 10-20.
Thanks in advance for your generosity with patterns and ideas.
Go to your fly box and pull out your trout flies and there you have your examples/patterns.
I have gradually been shifting my flies over to tube flies. The larger flies are easy. For streamers and wooly buggers, just use the same materials but tie them on a tube. You can make the exact same flies on tubes that you do on hook shanks. The keys are keeping the tube from spinning while you wrap and making sure that you have enough materials b/c the larger width on the tube means that you will need longer feathers, etc…
THe small flies, such as the dries, nymphs, midges, etc… are trickier. There may very well be tubes that small available somewhere, but I have not seen them. Some people make their own tubes, so maybe people have found a way that manufacturers have not found to make the small sizes.
Here is a good site to get you started. Scroll down to the bottom for additonal pages and patterns.
As BluDun has said tie the fly pattern you like on a tube instead of a hook. Search “HMH Tube Flies” and you will go a site Fly Fishing USA that will list micro.060 OD tubing that will fit on a .041 HMH mandrel. This tube can be used on size 16 thru 18 hooks. You asked for tubes for trout,you must have small fish because I use no smaller then 12 s for my tubes tied on Q tips with double and trebble hooks. Tubes for years have been used for the sole purpose of casting a large fly with less hook weight. Think of how a 6 or 8 inch musky fly would look and weigh if you could find a hook that large. I see no reason for tying small tubes other than you could put 20 in you fly box with only one hook. BILL :tieone:
I’ve done my reading on the subject and seems that the big confusion point for me is the junction tubing at the rear of the tube and to the hook. What do people use for that?
Iknew about the bike spoke idea, but the allen wrench idea is certainly novel (and I have tons of those laying around that are mismatched from my sets).
Keep the ideas coming folks, this could be very interesting!
After tying the tube fly another tube is added to the rear. This second tube fits tight on the rear and is called the “hook keeper”. Tubes usually use straight eye hooks that fit tight in this keeper. When the fish strikes the hook pulls loose and the fly goes up the leader. For my Qtip flies I have found that a intervenis feeding tube from the hospital is just the right size. Just ask a nurse for a life time supply. Search “Nordic Way Tube Flies” for great diagrams and patterns. BILL :tieone:
The allen wrench L bend would get in my way when tying–A nail would work just as well------
I posted a tube fly pattern, the Bunny Baitfish, on the Fly of the Week page a couple years ago. It is a streamer I like to use for smallmouth bass. I have not tried it for trout, but if you downsize it, it should work. Very simple fly, two materials (a crosscut zonker strip and a regulat zonker strip) - adding flash gives you a third material.
You can get stainless steel wire ‘welding rod’ at any welders supply…I use .040 wire…a couple of 3’ lengths are about a dollar.
Cut one to ‘length’ (I can let the ‘excess’ stick out the back of the vise jaws, so I use about a two inch piece for smaller flies). Bend a sharp 90 degree angle in one end of it, and cut it so that the ‘leg’ is about 1/8 inch long.
I use Q-tip tubes (500 for a dollar at the dollar store…) for my tube flies…cut the tube with an angle of at least 45 degree at the front end. This will allow the bent leg to engage and keep the tube from spinning as you tie. Tighten by sliding the wire into the vise jaws until the tube butts snugly against the jaws.
Tie your fly on the tube, leaving a quarter inch or so of the tube protruding from the FRONT of the fly…after you are done, trim the tube to length at both ends. With some patterns you can tie several flies on one tube, then cut them apart…doesn’t work with a lot of patterns, but when it does it can save a few steps.
I’ve found that with many smaller hook sizes, you can insert a tapered bodkin into the back of the Qtip tube and enlarge it enough that it will hold the hook securely enough without the ‘junction tubing’ being needed…this reduces weight and is especially helpful on smaller dry flies.
On some heavier bass flies, I let the tube slide free on the line…the fly stays in place pretty well without the junction tube in most cases like this, and I get fewer snags and better hook ups.
