Sunday, October 24, 2010

Sunday Morning Golden Stones

I have been playing around with computer packing foam for a while now and just can't get it to work right for me.  Last night and this morning I played around a bit and found a good use for the foam by using it as stonefly wings.  Take a look at the photos and let me know what you think.







These stones are a standard pattern tied with biots, dubbing and wire rib.  I used a shelback of Thin Skin on some and Medallion Sheeting on one. They will both work fine and I am sure the fish can't tell the difference.  The dubbing I used was Nature's Spirit Amber Emergence Dubbing, one I am becoming to love on nymphs.  The wings are computer packing foam, the kind you find your keyboard and other computer parts wrapped up in when you first open it up.  I used a caddis wing cutter to get the shape of the wings and on this particular size, I used a #18 caddis cutter.  For smaller stones, such as a #14, you might have to cut these by hand as I think the wings would be too big for that size bug.  I colored the wings with a brown marker making sure to make a few coats as this foam really doesn't take maker all that well.  I made sure to hit the edges well, so that the ink soaks up into the foam edges, giving it a nice, bold outline. For the black stone, I used some MFC Phoenix Dubbing in Black Beetle color.  Any buggy dubbing will work for you as long as it is buggy.   I will be tying up more of these and tweaking things here and there, but for now I like the look.  

12 comments:

  1. Very nice tie Juan. I love your creative use of materials. When do classes start?

    ReplyDelete
  2. nice clean pattern!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Juan
    Very realistic this is one of my favorite patterns.Thanks for joining my blog, I am becoming one of your followers, to learn more about your tying techniques. Bill

    ReplyDelete
  4. Juan
    Very realistic this is one of my favorite patterns. Thanks for joining my blog, I am becoming one of your followers, to learn more about your tying techniques. Bill

    ReplyDelete
  5. Juan - any chance you can just take a photo of the foam and let us see what it looks like before cutting it? I honestly can not picture the foam your are describing. Great bugs and photos - I will add these to my blog. Great work.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very nice looking pattern Juan. Have you floated these? I'm thinking these will actually drift right side up with that cupped wing capturing water drag as it sinks. That would solve an age old problem of most stone flies, as most drift upside down once they are weighted in the body. Personally, I use mono vs lead wrap or wire to keep them from turning over. Get your snorkel and mask on and let me know how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks guys for the comments. I hope to have more about this fly in the future. I will post a new post about the foam and it's applications, also so you can see what it looks like.

    Juan

    ReplyDelete
  8. I really like this pattern a lot and will have to try tying a few up to fish here in TN...

    ReplyDelete
  9. dude! those are tottaly awesome stone patterns. I knew you were a master at the hopper but looks like a whole lot more! nice looking group of bugs

    ReplyDelete
  10. Outstanding flies to say the least. Very good use of the thin packing foam. I do believe some cameras come with the same thin foam.

    Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anyone have a pick of this foam? I think I know what it looks like - but want to be sure.

    ReplyDelete