Substitute Fly Tying Materials - California Fishing

Beresford13861 · 02-09-2007, 01:47 PM

Substitute Fly Tying Materials (and where to get them)

Beads
Metal Beads
Bead chain from the hardware store if dismantled can be used for bead heads and bead chain eyes.

Plastic and Glass Beads
Craft and sewing shops carry beads in all sorts of colours and sizes for small prices.

Dubbing and Body Materials

Body Material
Knitting Wool and yarn - ask friends and family for left over balls, mohair remanents from stores.

Dubbing Material
Blankets = Furry Foam (K-Mart or similar)
Clipped fur from toy stuffed animals
Cotton from cotton balls, fine dubbing that can be easily dyed
Knitting Wool and yarn - ask friends and family for left over balls, mohair remanents from stores.
Ladies Purses cut into thin strips different colors for segmented bodies.
Latex gloves cut into strips provides Latex rib, or segmented bodies.
Lint from the clothes drier dryer
Old fur coats, stoles, gloves are a good source or real and substitute fur (rabbit, mink etc.)
Old carpet remanents for synthetic material
Pet cats, dogs, they probably wont like you snipping it off them so use a grooming brush.
Plastic Canvas Yarn provides body wrap or dubbing material / Streamers (Craft dept.)

Polar Fleece cut into thin strips can make good fly bodies
Press-on Nails make beetle backs.

Silk flowers = Crawdad claws, and Nymph backs.

Sunflower Seed hulls make good beetle backs
Zip-Loc bags gives Scud backs

Zip-Loc bag locking strpss can be used for adult damsel fly bodies

Popper Bodies
The foam core of RG-11 coax cable makes a wonderful white body Foam ear plugs are good for Chuggers and Sliders

Feathers/Marabou etc

Feathers
In the back yard, the street, the beach , the golf course anywhere !
If you know someone who keeps birds ask them for feathers from the bottom of the cages.

Feather mask kits from craft stores give hackles in weird colors.

Marabou

Feather dusters are a good source of colourful marabou.
Feather Boa, also a good cheap source of Marabou buy it by the metre at a craft shop

Legs and Tails

Legs

Bungee Cords - use the insides of a cheap bungee cord (the ones that look like a nylon rope, not the solid black type).
Plastic hairbrush bristles = Legs
Synthetic dusters Jig leg material

Tails

Good quality artist's paintbrush = Microfibetts tailing material (Art Supply Store)

Tools

Amunition Cartridges (Empty) (38s, 45s) make good hair stackers

Ball Point Pen Cases make good half hitch tools

Butler G.U.M Floss Threaders = Bobbin threaders (Kid's use these to thread dental floss through their braces) (Drug Store-Dental Section)

Chap Stick or Lipstick lids (metal not plastic) make good hair stackers

Circuit Testers = Hackle Pliers--The little hook kind (Radio Shack)

Other

Hair Spray--Unscented! To spray quill feathers to reinforce them so they don't split for wings, shellbacks, wing cases etc.
Household Goop = Dave's Flexament. (Sports dept.)
Liquid Brushing Lacquer = Head Cement (Hardware or Paint Store)
Nail Varnish = Head Cement (Drug Store specials)
Tuffilm--A charcoal fixative, same purpose as Hair Spray (see above)--a little more substantial. (Art Supply Store)

Supa711 · 02-09-2007, 03:05 PM

Supreme post! I can tell you for sure I got some wierd looks from my dad the first time I started making a bag for feathers and a bag for breasts after a day of hunting. Even wierder looks when I would gather up the fur from our Brittany's(hunting dogs) Used the firearm brass teq. for a hair stacker, works pretty damn well. Sunflower beetle shell sounds like it would work pretty well, easily paintable too, just might crack after a few fish.

Beresford13861 · 02-09-2007, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Supa711

Supreme post! I can tell you for sure I got some wierd looks from my dad the first time I started making a bag for feathers and a bag for breasts after a day of hunting. Even wierder looks when I would gather up the fur from our Brittany's(hunting dogs) Used the firearm brass teq. for a hair stacker, works pretty damn well. Sunflower beetle shell sounds like it would work pretty well, easily paintable too, just might crack after a few fish.

tie off and cement before the shell, so you can go home and put a new one on for next time without re-tying everything

Supa711 · 02-09-2007, 03:35 PM

Ahh, this is very true. Nice! May have to go home today and try that out. Hell get it down right and you could probably pull it off streamside. I really need to get out and use my flyrod. About 5 years ago I bought myself a tube, fins a flyrod for my b-day and Cabela's high end tying kit, and they rarely get used, shame on me I know. I wish good freshwater action was closer... either that or get another spool for my reel so I can rock the saltwater action. Mile Square and Huntington Central park lakes just dont hold the same appeal as a nice quiet gurgling mountain stream.

danlabarb_DP · 02-09-2007, 05:49 PM

i use my dogs fur to tie flies
it workes well because his fur is water repellant

cst · 02-09-2007, 07:46 PM

hey supa, just fly fish in the harbor

YakityYak · 02-09-2007, 08:30 PM

Outstanding post! I'm a pretty cheap bastard, I gotta make my fishing budget stretch, so I'm always looking at different material to use. I haven't used anything off my dogs yet, but I'm sure I will soon.

Supa711 · 02-10-2007, 09:04 PM

CST, I only have a floating line spooled up, not sure how well that would work for the bass and hali's unless i was fishing the shallows.

NulodPBall · 02-10-2007, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Supa711

CST, I only have a floating line spooled up, not sure how well that would work for the bass and hali's unless i was fishing the shallows.

===

You can use a long leader, and you can buy a sinking leader to turn your line into a sink tip line. for the harbor you can also just get cheap sinking line, fast rate sink...you might be able to get it for about 20 dollars or less if you hunt around. You don't need to really cast unless you're working the docks, just drag it around...that's how I fished with weighted flies with my 5 wt, before I got a heavier rod.

NulodPBall · 02-10-2007, 10:15 PM

Oh, PS: If you don't have the right color of something, keep white material around, and you can use a magic marker (they come in more colors than just black) to create the right color

Over at Bob Marriott's near the wire, they carry markers for the very same purpose

Need a grizzly pattern?....

I didn't have grey thread one time and I just dotted the midge with black...didn't quite come out as I wanted, but it caught fish

cst · 02-10-2007, 10:17 PM

use your own hair for flytying!

Beresford13861 · 02-11-2007, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cst

use your own hair for flytying!

now first id have to grow some

cst · 02-11-2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Chap Stick or Lipstick lids (metal not plastic) make good hair stackers

and the chap stick would probably make good dubbing wax

Beresford13861 · 02-11-2007, 10:29 PM

ok i went to michaels arts and craft store today.... i found;
peacock feathers, whole (with eye) and some peacock pieces about 2 bucks, and thats about 7 at a fly shop.

marabou, in white red and black galore, about 2 bucks again.

beads for days off course.

i got a wire set, about 32gauge, in 16 colors for 3 bucks, would be 15 at a fly shop.

alot of different peasant plumes 1 buck and a half... about 9 bucks worth easy from a fly shop...

it was way worth the drive, i truly recomend you to go there before you hit your fly shop, you will save mega bucks!

NulodPBall · 02-12-2007, 02:07 AM

nice...Sat night I was tying up an imitation of a fly that I had...didn't have feathers for the tail, and wings so I substituted nylon twine pieces for the tail, and fake fur and twine pieces for the straight part of the body...and no hackle so I just tied some of the fake fur backwards

Oh, and with fur, I like the "natural" trailing edge rather than the look it gets when I trim it if I made it too long.