UV tying thread.

[Maurice]

I am reluctant to admit that I have not yet immersed myself in the materials and tying styles of UV. So I thought it might be fun to kinda collect advice and opinions all in one thread. Sort of a clearing house for the topic. Let’s start with inexpensive starter “kit” recommendations for the beginnner and perhaps some simple patterns. Then we can get fancy with the experts and top shelf stuff.

Truth be told, I just wanna get into the game and am too lazy to research it. So steer me in the right direction and clear of the jalopys.

Thanks in advance.

 

[afishinado]

Just FYI (and not to mess up your thread!)....here is a great article with detailed science about UV vision of animals and trout in particular >

https://midcurrent.com/science/to-uv-or-not-to-uv/

Near the end of the article, this info/conclusion on UV and trout vision appears >

John Acorn regularly uses ultraviolet photography in his work as an entomologist. One of the areas he finds the technique useful is in helping to distinguish between species of Colias butterflies. They look very similar under visible light but are easily told apart under ultraviolet. Acorn is also a fly fisherman, and since fly fishing entomologists are knowledgeable folk his local fly fishing club asked him to give a talk on ultraviolet vision. Before the talk, he turned his skill at ultraviolet photography to taking pictures of trout food—mayflies, caddis flies and the like.

Then, having given his talk he wrote an article on the topic for the journal, American Entomologist. He found that ultraviolet photographs of trout food looked “pretty much exactly the same as any other black and white photographs of the same subject.” He also went on to say that this was not surprising: “… trout food insects just simply don’t possess strong UV-reflectance patterns, and that trout are not likely to identify their food by looking for UV reflectance”.

But for fly fishers, there seems to be no reason to elevate this trait to any significant status. For trout and a number of other species we target, ultraviolet-sensitive vision does not seem to be a component of the adult fish’s behavior, and it is especially unlikely to be an important part of the way they locate and identify their food.

Carry on.....

 

[Maurice]

To be clear....I am not interested in UV materials tying. Just the UV curing gluey stuff


https://youtu.be/3oBD9b8Ph3A

 

[afishinado]

:-o

 

[poopdeck]

It's just glue. It's not magical and there's not much to research. There are different brands but they all do the same thing. Some people will say this brand is sticky and this brand is great but it's nothing more then a more expensive way to perform the rather easy and inexpensive task of sticking things together.

I bought it, used it, and now I don't buy it and use it and prefer a good bottle of easily and cheaply acquired bottle of Sally Hanson.

UV does have a couple of benefits that do nothing for me but may be of importance to others. It dries quick so if your into speed tying you may like it a lot. It's great for building up heads if you like to build up heads without looking at your fly spin around on a piece of foam for 30 minutes. Otherwise, it's just fancy over priced glue.

 

[afishinado]

Here are a few really good articles giving info on many types and brands of UV resins for fly tying >

https://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/light-curing-resins

http://www.flyfishfood.com/2015/10/uv-resin-shootout.html

 

[dryflyguy]

I once tried a wader sealing goo called sun patch, or something like that.
After putting it on, you set it out in the sun. And I guess the UV rays are supposed to make it set quickly.

And it did work rather quickly as advertised.
However, it wasn't very flexible. And tended to crack - not being a permanent fix IMO.

 

[PennKev]

I've been sold on the stuff since day one. Anywhere you'd use epoxy or several coats of head cement is a potential application for UV cure resins.

As for costs associated with UV resins, I've found that Solarez works well and is one of the least expensive products out there. In regards, to the lights, cheap, and powerful UV flashlights can be had on Amazon or ebay. Or, you can wait for a batch of flies that need finished, apply the resin, then take them outside on a sunny day. But really, the lights are available cheaply enough to just buy one.

There are several big advantages over epoxy IMO.
- There is no waiting. Put it on, cure it. Done.
- There's no mixing and thus no badly or unequally mixed batches.
- The stuff doesn't turn yellow or brown, at least not that I've noticed. Quick cure epoxies will turn yellow after a few months, if not sooner. Even longer curing epoxies will become discolored over time.
- You use only what you need. You don't need to measure out and mix more than you are going to use.

Epoxy does, however, adhere much better to many surfaces.

 

[nfrechet]

i recommend solarez bone dry uv resin

and a 21 led uv flashlight. google for the cheapest price

dont be disuaded from trying uv resins. try the solarez resins that come in the squeeze tubes just dont buy their $$$ light

 

[afishinado]

++1 ^

I bought a large UV light on Amazon for less than $10 a few years back and never looked back.

I've tried 4 or 5 different brands of resin and have landed on Solarez for both the price and performance.

TCtrout Tim did a nice video on Solarez here.