The Fly Tyers Corner

By Donald R. Van Buren, NCFF

Fly Tying Material is where you find it!

Fly Tying material can be found in some of the must unusual places and can involve some very innovative materials. The astute fly tier can recognize material that is suitable for fly tying under some very funny, strange and inspiring circumstances.

I was fishing with a friend who was just slaying the trout on a “Green Weenie” unfortunately he soon ran out of this fly and I had none. Look as we could we did not have the material to tie a simple “Green Weenie”. Since it was close to lunch we quit fishing to go into town for a sandwich and cup of coffee. The town amounted to a simple general store that sat on a cross roads in the middle of nowhere.

The biggest activity to hit this area recently was a cross country pipeline. This ultimately led us to the much-needed material to tie the “Green Weenie”! The pipeline needed to be surveyed and you guessed it! Surveyor’s tape was in stock (left over) at the general store. Much to our delight we able to purchase some green surveyors tape. After our sandwich and coffee we proceeded to tie up several “Green Weenies” and once again went after the trout. Yep! They hit it and our success continued.

Ed Sutton, one of our esteemed members, turned me on to “Milk Weed Pod”, yes “Milk Weed Pod”! Tied into an “Elk Hair Caddis” it looks and behaves a little like CDC feathers.

My wife is constantly asking me if I want this material or that material before she throws it out. Two nice examples of materials that she turned me onto was the very thin, white closed cell packing foam. This material makes very nice bodies and can be readily colored with a Pantone pen. The synthetic imitation grass from an Easter Basket was another one. Cut and mixed with dubbing this material is a nice dubbing enhancer.

One of the more humorous materials that I have used is shredded U.S. money from the Federal Reserve Bank! For visitors they have small packets of this shredded money that they sell as tourist gifts, etc.

I have a long time friend, who lived in Chicago and on occasion I would visit and we would go hunting, he belonged to a very nice Rod and Gun Club. On one of these hunting trips he said he was going to try Fly Fishing in the coming spring season. One of his characteristics was that he always earned a lot of money, had a nose for money, and he spent very prudently. Soooo! Since spring was just around the corner I volunteered to tie him some flies and send them to him.

While tying at my bench I happened across the pouch of shredded money and decided to tie a single fly with it and insert it into the packet of 90 plus flies I had put together and packaged for my friend. I mailed the package and several days later I called him to see if he got the flies. His response was “I just got them and I am opening them as we speak”. At that moment I mentioned that I had tied one special fly for him, which I had inserted among the 90 or so flies, and challenged him to find it! I no sooner finished my sentence then he shouted, “I’ve found it, it’s the one made of shredded money, what a waste”. My retort comment is not fit to print!

Oh! For the record, yes I have caught fish on flies tied with the materials I mentioned, as well as flies tied with old Cassette Tapes and Dryer Lint as dubbing

So before you throw out that funny looking stuff, investigate it, it may be a hidden treasure trove of material to be used to tie flies!

"Keep Tying, Fishing & Teaching!"

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