Detached Bodies

[fishyjames]

Hi, I am having extreme problems Tying detached bodies, I am trying to tye a deer hair body for a Crane Fly, I tied it on a needle (all I have at the moment) and it all looked very nice, finished it off and varnished it, wait for the varnish to dry, then tried to pull it off the needle. All that happened is that the thread came undone, even though I had done a whip finish and a couple of half hitches, it just unwound all the way down the body, can someone tell me how to tie these properly?
I hardly did any thread wraps on the needle itself, only 3 or 4 to initially attach the thread. I have attampted the body twice, both times the same thing happened, I did as few thread wraps as possible on the second attempt, but it still failed to work.

Any help appreciated

[flytyingguy]

Hi Jaes you need to pull it of really fast or watch Mr Mcphail do 'em

[lvlacleod]

Ben (sunkistbob) is the best man to speak to, I hear whenever he is out on the lash he does a very good impression of a detached body

[A. Fluker]

Originally Posted by lvlacleod

Ben (sunkistbob) is the best man to speak to, I hear whenever he is out on the lash he does a very good impression of a detached body

Lol!

[bobblaikie]

it took me a while to get these but i found it helps to put plenty varnish over both ends of the body, let it dry thoroughly, then quickly pull the needle from the deer hair. also try and leave your thread wraps round the needle as loose as possible.

Bob

[fishyjames]

Thanks for the replies, will try out those methids soon, but for now I'm doing well with furled superbug yarn bodies I think furled is the correct term

Thanks for the help, much appreciated

ATB

[flytier07]

Hi James. Furled bodies work well and foam works better than deer or elk hair which as you,re finding is very fiddly and you need a lot of practise to get it riight, but it will come. I don,t really like using deer hair or similar so use foam most of the time as it looks just as good and the trout don,t seem to mind. Also foam isn,t so messy as you don,t need to use varnish till the fly is finished or at least just lay a thin coating before you wind the foam body just to anchor it a bit.

[fishyjames]

Originally Posted by flytier07

Hi James. Furled bodies work well and foam works better than deer or elk hair which as you,re finding is very fiddly and you need a lot of practise to get it riight, but it will come. I don,t really like using deer hair or similar so use foam most of the time as it looks just as good and the trout don,t seem to mind. Also foam isn,t so messy as you don,t need to use varnish till the fly is finished or at least just lay a thin coating before you wind the foam body just to anchor it a bit.

Thanks, I will probably start to use foam, I have watched Davie McPhail use foam and it is a lot easier.

[lvlacleod]

Originally Posted by fishyjames

Thanks, I will probably start to use foam, I have watched Davie McPhail use foam and it is a lot easier.

But will it be as satisfying. I have tried foam but it just didn't feel the same when I was finished or wanted to use them on the water. Food for thought

Stick at it, you'll get there. It must have taken me at least 20 attempts before I was happy enough to use the fly.

[Cap'n Fishy]

I bought some Turrell's latex detached bodies to make dapping daddies. They were just floppy hollow skins. So floppy that I had to cut a bit foam and carefully work it up the inside to give them a bit substance.

I carefully tied up about a dozen, then, in preparation for use, I gave them a good dunk in liquid silicone floatant and let them dry. Er, just one problem... when I came to use them the floatant had attacked the latex, and they all just broke off at the point of tying in. etc!

However, they still had the foam insert intact - it was maybe a bit skinny on a big dapping fly with 4 hackles, but perfectly serviceable. From now on I am just going to tie them with foam

Col