SpanFlex Bodies

[Sylvaneous]

My friend is a FFing guide and that gives him a LOT of observations and one is that of the superiority of thin bodied dry flies.
I have tried, successfully, I'll say, spandex legging material for dry fly bodies.
I won't cover the littany of benefits, but very quickly you'll become fascile with this material. The only limitation is color selection. It IS transluecent, so thread underneath can alter the color. I can't make any definite comments about how it takes marker. I would say it is pretty good, as I've used marker on this material used for legs and it seems to stay. It gets lighter and, actually, that might be better. I don't want to say too much that might be wrong.

My experience makes me wonder why this material isn't more popular. The dubbing is frequently bumpy or just not great looking when I dub a body of a sz. 18 or smaller fly. This makes an AWESOME looking body. Wrapping silver or gold flashabou underneath makes the fly body seem to glow.

it's easy, simple effective and cheap.

 

[drakeking412]

i think ive used it a few times, any product where the underwraps show through in any way is a huge plus for me because the variations are endless then.

in the vein of "thin body dries" have you tried veevus spooled body quills yet? i really got into it and have started using it more and more and it comes in tons of colors too.

 

[bugs4]

Back in the day, Fred Reese and Donny Bastian used flexible floss quite extensively. Fred used to dye the stuff and had a myriad of colors. It works quite well. I have a stash of creamy colored translucent stuff that the color of the thread shows thru. Makes a fine dun or spinner body.

 

[Sylvaneous]

drakeking412 wrote:
i
in the vein of "thin body dries" have you tried veevus spooled body quills yet? i really got into it and have started using it more and more and it comes in tons of colors too.

No, I haven't. Actual quill bodies look great but are fragile, and if not fragile require...too much hoo-ha.

I"m put-off by off colors and, like any standard product, you takes what they gives ya'. THat was one of only 2 issues I've had with Span-Flex (or what ever name the company you buy them from calls this stuff). 1) color accuracy and 2) that tag end where you start wrapping it and just can't quite cut off perfectly smoothly. Profile is way more important that color, so that should bother me first, but I'm a superficial human who is entranced by colors, so color me guilty.

Really, there arent' that many wild deviations. If you really think of the #'s of differnt colors of dry fly bodies and the results of using Pentone markers, you can get pretty nuanced with 5 colors of Span-Flex and 4 or 5 marker colors. Plus you can experiment. Want that *peachy* color of brown on Hendricksons? Try yellow marker over a rootbeer spandex strand. THAT's pretty nuanced. Plus you can mark the strand before you wrap it. You can mark it lose and untensioned OR you can stretch it out, mark it and let it relax and dry. THat makes the color many times darker. ANd wrapping it kinda traps the color underneath the strand.
AGain, very nuanced. But people eat that $#!T up, plus its fun to do!

I mean, I and my buddy *(the guide, ah-hem... just being an a@@#hole, Sorry) found the 'PMD' colored strand perfect for the PMD bodies on the Missouri in sz 17. (Sz. 16, 1X short fly hooks are NOT super common, but should be!) If I was happy with them, and I've only experimented on the PMD's out west, and I'm more prickish about my flies than most people. (I'm changing that one. I know it works, but it just doesn't look right to me.) it should be ok for others.
Hell, Id' even mail someone a strand so they could Fkk with it and see if they like it, not waste $6 on something they hate.

Syl

 

[afishinado]

Sylvaneous wrote:

drakeking412 wrote:
i
in the vein of "thin body dries" have you tried veevus spooled body quills yet? i really got into it and have started using it more and more and it comes in tons of colors too.

No, I haven't. Actual quill bodies look great but are fragile, and if not fragile require...too much hoo-ha.

I"m put-off by off colors and, like any standard product, you takes what they gives ya'. THat was one of only 2 issues I've had with Span-Flex (or what ever name the company you buy them from calls this stuff). 1) color accuracy and 2) that tag end where you start wrapping it and just can't quite cut off perfectly smoothly. Profile is way more important that color, so that should bother me first, but I'm a superficial human who is entranced by colors, so color me guilty.

Really, there arent' that many wild deviations. If you really think of the #'s of differnt colors of dry fly bodies and the results of using Pentone markers, you can get pretty nuanced with 5 colors of Span-Flex and 4 or 5 marker colors. Plus you can experiment. Want that *peachy* color of brown on Hendricksons? Try yellow marker over a rootbeer spandex strand. THAT's pretty nuanced. Plus you can mark the strand before you wrap it. You can mark it lose and untensioned OR you can stretch it out, mark it and let it relax and dry. THat makes the color many times darker. ANd wrapping it kinda traps the color underneath the strand.
AGain, very nuanced. But people eat that $#!T up, plus its fun to do!

I mean, I and my buddy *(the guide, ah-hem... just being an a@@#hole, Sorry) found the 'PMD' colored strand perfect for the PMD bodies on the Missouri in sz 17. (Sz. 16, 1X short fly hooks are NOT super common, but should be!) If I was happy with them, and I've only experimented on the PMD's out west, and I'm more prickish about my flies than most people. (I'm changing that one. I know it works, but it just doesn't look right to me.) it should be ok for others.
Hell, Id' even mail someone a strand so they could Fkk with it and see if they like it, not waste $6 on something they hate.

Syl

I've used translucent materials for tying flies, and it gives flies a great look. You can alter the color of the body by wrapping different colored threads as a base on the hook shank. You may want to try experiment with different material and thread colors to achieve the color you are looking for on the body of the fly.

 

[lestrout]

Yo Syl,
I got a bunch of Spandex years, maybe decades ago. With age, it deteriorates and embrittles. Maybe they've improved it since?

tl
les

 

[Sylvaneous]

I don't know much about its shelf life. I have some that is many years old and still like new. I've also had some that wasn't made or treated correctly and just went to pieces.
That's all I saw and all I can say.

JB

 

[JeffK]

The newer stuff lasts better than the old versions. That isn't an issue any more.

My biggest use is for midge larva. Red midge large are translucent with it and my new pattern is tan flex wrapped over orange thread on a 22 short hook.

Out west purple flies are hot and I use a purple flex body on a parachute dry fly.

 

[wgmiller]

Here's a nice October caddis pattern using a Spanflex/Flexifloss material for the body. I haven't tied it yet, but it looks like a winner if your waters have these flies. You can't go wrong with Tim Flagler ties!

 

[LigonierA1]

You can split a strand of Flexi/Sexy/Span/whatever the company selling it calls it. Don Bastion turned me onto this via his website a while back. I use an exact-o knife to parse/split the strand and it pulls apart just like string cheese. Subsequently I have regressed to mauling a strand of it with my bobbin until I have manipulated it into a thinner strand. These thinner strands give you proportionally correct bodies on 22 bwo for example. They look and work amazingly well.