Epoxy Bugs

[drakeking412]

In recent times I have been doing more and more entomology work trying to study the differences between nymphs and also gain ability to identify all forms as well. It's fun and people tell me I'm becoming a better fisherman too which would be nice, it certainly has improved my tying.

I'm not sure if I've shared before but I've also started to make resin cased bugs. It's a tough process from finding good samples, getting them home safely, and then somehow getting them properly cased (which has it's own subset of challenges) but they are getting better and better each round. I have a couple different molds in different sizes with some having a concave dome shape giving magnification on one side and true size on the other. Here is one of the better recent ones, they make EXCELLENT tying references.

https://imgur.com/a/xB1t2OT

Find me on the river and chat me up, you just might get one!

 

[afishinado]

Wow! That's excellent. The form and the color appears perfect. Great job. Very useful for tying or just lookin'!

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Neat! IF you haven't gotten high proof >70% ISO preferably higher that is a great option for preserving specimen. I would imagine they would still take to epoxy well after being preserved in that manner.

I would be interested in learning more about your process!

 

[bigjohn58]

That is way cool!

 

[Dave_W]

Agree - this is really neat.

I used to collect when I was younger and put bugs, scorpions, etc. in alcohol. They lost their coloration. Will be interesting to see how coloration holds up in resin.

 

[coyoterahn]

I’m impressed! Let’s see some more!

 

[discomidge]

Freaking awesome. When I saw some of your samples in the lot a while back I had no idea they'd come out so clean.

Plus in a million years some enterprising billionaire could extract DNA from them and populate a remote island with long-extinct bugs for fisherman. Holocene Park.

 

[drakeking412]

Ask and you shall receive.

https://imgur.com/a/htaeoxF

There is an example of the concave one which is usually the "gift" ones. The last set of gifts was grannoms but I never took any photos of them unfortunately and passed them all out so technically there's some of those in the wild. The October Caddis is right when they started to get sort of good in clarity and I started to figure things out. The March Brown spinner is an example of the difficulty getting a perfect sample and then getting it to rest properly in the resin too and then the unfortunate result of it all...

I've done it with tons of different species though nymph and adult phase with each having their own set of challenges. Fortunately the resin is fairly cheap so I can afford to make mistakes. I've thought about quitting this endeavor a few times now as it is so difficult and time consuming and I beat myself up over "a life lost" just for a poor sample. Ultimately though they're getting to the point where there aren't many mistakes and people are super jazzed on them so thank you all so much for your kind words, it means a lot!

 

[troutbert]

The one in the photo looks very cool.

I want to see the Green Drake.

And a CICADA would be nice!!