Creating "air bubble" effect on the cheap

[noreaster]

It's funny,
I read a while ago somewhere about the air bubble that is seen on many backs or sides of aquatic insects that use it to breath. Now the reference it seems is popping up everywhere. Love the floating beads from Kevin the morayflyfisher.

I started thinking how I could get that effect on the cheap and easy. I was thinking a type of silver mylar. Needs to be durable and bendy not crinkly. I am sure there must be many official fly tying materials for this job but I enjoy scrounging for new materials.

So here's what I came up with.

these wrappers are actually pretty tough.

Cut a piece on the crease where wrapper is doubled over. Cut it into a tear drop shape. patterned like a bow tie.

I like the effect that it creates.

cheers

phil

 

[mcnerney]

Phil: Pretty ingenious idea, way to find alternative materials for tying, much cheaper than the mylar material available at the retail fly shops or online shops.

Larry

 

[Rip Tide]

I use mylar quite a bit myself but mostly the exterior of the wrappers. Particularly for eyes on streamers.
For example on that candy bar wrapper in the picture, I might cut teardrop shapes utilizing the "8" and the "g'" (in 48 g.) as the irises and then tie them in on my streamers just as you would junglecock nails
Good stuff.... and free.

 

[wt bash]

There is a video, I can't remember the tier or the video name, but the guy uses a plastic Sweet and Low bag for the body, a grey shopping bag for wings and the end result is a pretty nice looking dry fly. Pretty cool Nor'Easter!

 

[noreaster]

..... cut teardrop shapes utilizing the "8" and the "g'" (in 48 g.) as the irises and then tie them in on my streamers just as you would junglecock nails
Good stuff.... and free.

That is a neat idea too.

 

[Ard]

You can tell when the weather has changed and the seasons close. Guys start tying all sorts of things to hooks

Back around 1979 - 1981, Fly Fisherman ran an article about a guy last name of Bett's I believe and he was an all synthetic fly tier. He used some surprising items and from them created pretty cool flies. I was, by that time, a little too invested in my ways and materials to break from the traditional path but I do remember his article & flies. If you are hording old issues of Fly Fishermen how bout looking that up.

Pretty slick that,

Ard

 

[Rip Tide]

You can tell when the weather has changed and the seasons close. Guys start tying all sorts of things to hooks

Back around 1979 - 1981, Fly Fisherman ran an article about a guy last name of Bett's I believe and he was an all synthetic fly tier. He used some surprising items and from them created pretty cool flies. I was, by that time, a little too invested in my ways and materials to break from the traditional path but I do remember his article & flies. If you are hording old issues of Fly Fishermen how bout looking that up.

Pretty slick that,

Ard

There are few people that have more respect for the traditional ways more than myself, but I happen to be believe that noreaster's mylar bubble is little different than the tinsel used on so many classic flies.
The flash that noreaster is trying to reproduce is so similar to the ribbing that what you would see on a Black Ghost or a Jock Scot that it's hardly worth drawing a difference.
Fish are drawn to a fly because they see something that attracts their attention. The same qualities that worked on traditional flies are the same that attract fish to flies that are more contemporary, and "flash" is one of those things. Whether it rusts like old time tinsel ribbing, or is plastic cut from a potato chip bag, there's little difference.

 

[planettrout]

You can tell when the weather has changed and the seasons close. Guys start tying all sorts of things to hooks

Back around 1979 - 1981, Fly Fisherman ran an article about a guy last name of Bett's I believe and he was an all synthetic fly tier. He used some surprising items and from them created pretty cool flies. I was, by that time, a little too invested in my ways and materials to break from the traditional path but I do remember his article & flies. If you are hording old issues of Fly Fishermen how bout looking that up.

Pretty slick that,

Ard

That would be John Betts who, along with Craig Matthew's cornered the world's entire stock of Zelon - from Dupont...

Hit your wet nymph with a couple of dabs of Frog's Fanny and 'ya get a quick "air bubble" effect...

http://www.flylife.com.au/library/tackrev/55/frogs.html


PT/TB

 

[williamhj]

Thanks for the delicious tip. I might have to focus on emptying many wrappers to get ready for some winter tying

 

[noreaster]

Thanks for all the neat comments and stories. As soon as I learned to fly tie, which would have been right around the time McGyver was making a lure from a gum wrapper, the world changed as far as materials went.

My dog's clipped hair or mom's knitting wool, as dubbin. Waxed dental floss for bodies. I've heard of bushy mature eye brow hair being used for stone fly tails. I'm sure there are beard and mustachio stories too.
Rubber bands for nymph legs. Remember those ties that came with the Glad garbage bags? Grey with a tapered zipper shape? They are good for nymph wing cases. The sky is the limit with this kind of art with all its it's mediums.:shades: Anything that mimics natural shapes, colors, durability, or movement is in. :wiggle:

 

[jpbfly]

Pretty good idea:thumbsup:I also like using weird materials...will post a SBS soon

 

[dean_mt]

Good stuff. I know I'm always bringing up Mr. LaFontaine when this kind of discussion arises...and this is the perfect time!

Gary was an innovative tyer, even the hardcore traditional tyer has to appreciate his approach to making imitations and impressions of bugs with odd materials.

The air bubbles he saw while diving in trout streams intrigued him, to say the least. One of the materials he came up with to mimic this effect is the thin open-cell foam sheeting that is used a packaging material for many products. You have some somewhere in your house. It is a wonderful free material for wing buds and does some amazing things when you wrap a thin strip over a dubbed mayfly body.

Here is my version of LaFontaine's "Halo Midge emerger" I tied for a swap last year, #20 xl.