Dying monofilament for ribbing

[Chaz]

GRHE, the gold rib is to add weight. on all the old wet flies, the foil was to add weight. Brassy, brass wire to add weight. It used to be that it was bad ethics to use weighted flies, i.e., led weight wrapped flies, or split shot on the lines. Times have changed. But in Maine it is illegal to use weighted flies, split shot in FFO areas.
So it looks like Becker is the troll.

 

[SBecker]

Chaz wrote:
Most ribbing is used to add weight to the fly you are tying, using monofilament defeats the purpose, as does using mylar ribbing and flash.

Dude, we are not in 1910.

 

[afishinado]

lol.......I've seen the tinsel that they used back in the day and some of it was pretty heavy. Probably was used to sink flies, but not as effective as the lead wire and/or tung beads we use today. Wonder what the old timers wudda thought if they saw a vladi kerplunk in the stream...bah humbug, probably.

 

[outsider]

I still have gold and silver metallic tinsel wound on wooden spools from the early/mid 60's, and it adds virtually no weight to flies. And it probably was 50's era manufactured since it was given to me by my father. Same thing with the fine braided tinsel from that era. Same weight as I buy today. Maybe SBecker hit it right on the head when he said circa 1910.

 

[afishinado]

outsider wrote:
I still have gold and silver metallic tinsel wound on wooden spools from the early/mid 60's, and it adds virtually no weight to flies. And it probably was 50's era manufactured since it was given to me by my father. Same thing with the fine braided tinsel from that era. Same weight as I buy today. Maybe SBecker hit it right on the head when he said circa 1910.

Yeah, I've seem some materials in one of the FFing museums. There was some very heavy flat, oval and round tinsel / wire used maybe 100 years ago.

 

[Chaz]

I prefer to rib flies with natural materials like strip peacock herl, and hackle quills. If the pattern calls for brass copper, or other ribbing then I use them. Never used mono.

 

[outsider]

Chaz,

You may want to try it sometime. I use pale yellow to reinforce my Sulphur duns (an example of dry fly usage) to help them maintain their shape after a few fish sink their teeth into them. I don't like a ragged looking dry fly.

The golden yellow makes a great ribbing for nymphs, without overpowering the fly like gold tinsel does (exception GRHE). And it doesn't dig into the fly body and disappear like fine gold wire. It is my favorite ribbing color for nymphs.

Another plus is expense. You can dye a decade's worth of ribbing to suit you for very little expense.

 

[sandfly]

problem with any rib including mono on a dry is it will sink because it does add weight to a dry, though it is miniscule at best. for my dries I would rather just not add anything xtra. I want my dries to float a long time. for wets and nymphs it is good. a ragged dry fly will trap more air and float longer than a tightly ribbed wrapped one.

 

[sandfly]

problem with any rib including mono on a dry is it will sink because it does add weight to a dry, though it is miniscule at best. for my dries I would rather just not add anything xtra. I want my dries to float a long time. for wets and nymphs it is good. a ragged dry fly will trap more air and float longer than a tightly ribbed wrapped one.

 

[mario66pens]

I like mono…you can really give it some tension for some deep segmentation.

 

[outsider]

sandfly wrote:
problem with any rib including mono on a dry is it will sink because it does add weight to a dry, though it is miniscule at best. for my dries I would rather just not add anything xtra. I want my dries to float a long time. for wets and nymphs it is good. a ragged dry fly will trap more air and float longer than a tightly ribbed wrapped one.

I never experienced this problem using small diameter monofilament. I use a silicone based fly dressing. And think about this: Dry flies with quill bodies such as a Red Quill or Quill Gordon don't sink, even though they are coated with cement. Take away the tails and hackle, and they would. Same as my dry flies with fine mono ribbing don't sink. Heck, we used to use fairly heavy thread many moons ago to rib some dry flies.

Also understand I don't rib dry flies on close centers. The spiral is pretty open.

 

[blueheron]

I want a segmented detail on my dries which is why I use biots on all my 18 to 12 flies, all are slender and segmented and the colors are readily available without dying your own, it never occurred to me to use mono.

 

[Chaz]

Anyone use the thread for ribbing?

 

[Tiogadog]

On certain flies I will use contrasting colors of thread for the ribbing..mostly smaller nymphs and midges...for scuds and sow bugs I use mono for ribbing.

I do not feel ribbing of any kind adds a consequential amount of weight to my flies...but I am not willing to start WW III in my defense of that statement

 

[Chaz]

Tiogadog wrote:
On certain flies I will use contrasting colors of thread for the ribbing..mostly smaller nymphs and midges...for scuds and sow bugs I use mono for ribbing.

I do not feel ribbing of any kind adds a consequential amount of weight to my flies...but I am not willing to start WW III in my defense of that statement

The weight added by using most materials is for neutral buoyancy and not to make a fly sink to the bottom like adding lead weight would.