One of the recent Fly Tyer magazines has an Oliver Edwards article on tying small stoneflies that uses Flexibody. I don’t think there is a U.S. source for that material, as a google search failed to turn up anything useful. Substitutions haven’t been satisfactory. (Not ruling out my skill as a tier).
Does anyone know the definitive story on this? Is it strictly a British Isles/Continental material?
good luck finding it. scud back is an alternative according to a few sites. you would need to cut the flexibody into strips anyway.
scud back
BigFlatBrook,
Does anyone know the definitive story on this? Is it strictly a British Isles/Continental material?
The definitive story, eh? 
Well, here goes.
In the late eighties a Dutch tier called Hans de Groot developed and started to distribute paper-backed sheets of a product he named Flexibody. Mid nineties Hans de Groot suffered a fatal heart attack, and production of the product ceased.
Hans’ son, Milosj, may or may not have restarted producing the sheets. I will see what I can find out on that score, and if so, will report back here.
Cheers,
Hans W
I’m asking partly because scud back doesn’t really achieve the desired effect in my mind.
That’s interesting information. I think Oliver Edwards is on record saying that flexibody is the most important innovation in materials of the past 25 years – or something like that. He must have a secret cache of the stuff.
Why would Fly Tyer publish a pattern that depends on materials that’s so difficult to obtain?
I like those little stonefly patterns. Those little stoneflies always show up in my local sampling. Mostly I’ve been tying slim-bodied hare’s ears for them, but I’d like to try something different.
A few years ago I picked up some of the origional European flexibody at Fly N Field in Glen Ellyn, IL. You could try giving them a call. Someone is currently selling a product in the US called flexibody. J Stockard fly fishing has it available right now. I bought a bunch from Stockard and it wasn’t the same cool colors as the origional stuff and the packaging was very different but it was the same material. WAPSI distributes a product called thin skin that is very similar (if not identical) to flexibody and the thin skin comes in some cool patterns like bustard and fly specs.
I do see that on the J. Stockard web site. It didn’t show up on a google search. Thin Skin might be the identical material, I just don’t know.
Contact Steve Korbay at Fly Tying Specialties (http://www.flytyingspecialties.com/). He carries Flexibody along with a lot of other specialty materials from the other side of the pond. I cannot vouch for the authenticity, but supposedly this is the real McCoy.
Hi all, A while back I started to use Tulip Fabric paint on many of my flies. I came up with a way to make a sheet out of the paint. I mainly
use the clear glitter type, because it shows the color of the under body of a fly. This is my rendition of a Scud.
To make a sheet use a Dixie paper plate, and coat it with a thin coat of Vaseline. I mix my Fabric paint with water, about half. If you want a thicker sheet, just use less water. Tulip puts out many types of Fab. Paint, smooth, glitter, puffy etc. You can dry it under a light bulb if you like, but not to close or else you can burn it. I am lucky, because I happen to own a food dryer. Two and a half hrs. and it is ready to peel from the plate.
If you use the paint straight from the bottle, tap the bottom of the plate on your knuckle of your other hand, and the paint will spread out to the thickness you want.
If you dilute the paint , tapping is not necessary, just roll it in a circle to the size and thickness you desire. I have made sheets tissue paper thin at times, just be careful when peeling it off. A sheet will shrink down to half its size, so experiment with it. The possibilities are endless. I hope this helps some of you.
Keep flyin and tyin.
Tony Angelino
That web site has a lot of interesting materials. Even though I’m definitely not a realistic tier.
I was able to find some Thin Skin locally, and was actually able to produce some stonefly nymphs that I was happy with. It wasn’t the right color, but a prismacolor marker did a pretty good job with them.
I like those patterns. Hope they catch some trout for me.
Rocky Mountian Dubbing out of Lander, WY is a distrubutor of Flexi-body, flexi-tail, and flexi-wrap. We also have their products listed on our web site. I think Wapsi also offers the flexi-body.
Bill