Fun With Foam

[OneMoreLastCast]

Sitting at my desk trying to come up with things to do can be tedious.

I stopped in at the Loonie store up here in Fort Mac to get nail clippers and discovered these nice thin pieces of foam they had, so I bought a couple for $0.10 a piece with the intention of trying to use them in fly tying.

 

I sat at my desk and cut the foam into pieces and prepared them for the bench. I cut them into strips and then rounded one end with each piece being just over 1/8 of an inch wide and just over an inch long. I then put a dab of crazy glue on the rounded end and pinched it together. I thought these would work well for body sections with the pinched end being the rear end.

 

 

Once back in my hotel room, I tried these new foam bodies for a few patterns and it seemed to work pretty well. Tell me what you think please because I am looking for input, advice, ideas, etc., because I am a very traditional tyer. I use mostly natural materials and this is my first try with foam.

It was nice to do something different and it was kind of fun as well. Tying with foam sure is fast too. Each fly took a total of 5 minutes to tie and when tested in water, I could see what the big deal with foam is. Man do they sit up nice.

 

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

This is the basic body I used for the different flies. With the Stones and Caddis, I cut the head section off.

 

Grasshopper

 

October Caddis

 

 

Stone

 

[admin]

Those turned out great. I'll have to try a few.

[DougC]

Looks awesome man, especially the October caddis.

[OneMoreLastCast]

Thanks Darren. You can't beat flies that take 3 or 4 minutes to tie and cost about 2 cents each.

 

The only thing about tying new fly patterns when you are on the road is that I don't know when I'll get to test them out.

Hopefully soon....I'm suffering from withdrawl.

[dryfly]

Nice work MTB--most inventive. Thanks.

 

I like the "strip and wind" results ... but sure like your body shapes.

 

Wally World and Michaels (or any craft shop) have great selections of foam colors. The Darice sheets are 8 by 11 inches and cost about one buck. Nice colors too: tans, yellows, ant red and ant and beetle black.

[OneMoreLastCast]

Thanks Clive, that's a pretty nice pattern that I will definitely try. I really like the rib effect with the hackle.

 

I was getting kind of stale tying the same old patterns, with the odd variance thrown in, but tying with the foam has made it interesting again. I'm going to try some new stuff I have in mind, but would love any other suggestions too.

 

It's really tough to get motivated to tie when you aren't going to be fishing any time soon. It's kind of like swinging the new golf clubs on Christmas morning....

[troutlover]

That oct caddis is really great. ( one of my favorite hatches to hit GULP!......ZZZZZING!!!!!!) if your having a problem trying your flys out you send them to me and i'll let you know

[Lundvike]

Wally World and Michaels (or any craft shop) have great selections of foam colors. The Darice sheets are 8 by 11 inches and cost about one buck. Nice colors too: tans, yellows, ant red and ant and beetle black.

 

How thick roughly? is Darice a brand name? Sweet looking flys btw. I might have to try tying some of those. I had bought a sheet of yellow but its seems like its about half as thick as I would like.

[OneMoreLastCast]

How thick roughly? is Darice a brand name? Sweet looking flys btw. I might have to try tying some of those. I had bought a sheet of yellow but its seems like its about half as thick as I would like.

The sheets I found are about the same thickness as a quarter and are virtually tear proof.

 

I also discovered a little trick to make the bodies look better when folding them over and crazy glueing. I cut the strips and leave the ends square, put a dab of crazy glue and then fold and pinch the end together. Then I round it off with the scissors, leaving less of a line visible.

I used this little trick on the Stone Fly in the last picture.

[Guest TerryH]

How thick roughly? .............

 

The craft foam available at Michael's, Wal-Mart etc. is 2mm thick. Thinner stuff is available from some fly shops, but I find the 2mm stuff works fine for most patterns. It's cheap as dirt too -- a life-time supply can be had for < $10.

 

Terry

[dryfly]

This will give you some idea of the color ranges available in greens-yellows.

These are half sheets available in a kids' craft kit at Wally World. There were 80 (??) half sheets for about $5. I took the dozen colors I wanted and donated the rest to the grandkids' craft box. The Darice sheets are bit stronger and larger but there is a limited color range. The foam is good for: ant, beetles, hoppers, caddisfly wings, emerger floatant balls. (I support local fly shops rather well, but we are all better off to shop for some things elsewhere for selection and cost. Fly shops charge [wot?] $4 for two half sheets of black ant foam and they don't carry a range of foam colors. Foam pike-fly popper and slider heads cost $1 each at fly shops and you can cut 50 or more from a $2 gardening kneeling pad or perhaps 40 plugs from a $2 foam flip flop sandal.)

 

Oh yeah, the Darice sheets (and others) come in pale tans, tans, browns, pinky orange, orange ... perfect for tan hoppers, October caddisflies, salmonflies. This is a crappy picture of a crappy salmonfly (the pattern is great--thanks Guy...this fly is just a little skinny....) tied with foam strips:

[fishfreak]

Wow, that's quite resourceful. I love foam flies!

[Guest rusty]

Brett - those caddis look amazing. The silhouette is perfect.

[OneMoreLastCast]

Thanks Rusty, and thanks Clive for the info and ideas.

 

I couldn't take it, so I'm heading out to BC to see how they float this weekend.

I talked my wife into taking the kids to BC for a little holiday and told her, "I might sneak out early each morning before anyone gets up if that's alright honey".

I got the same old, "What ever".

We'll see how the Cutties like the foam.

[bloom]

love the caddis. The foam body ones are great for skating around on lakes!

[SilverDoctor]

Has anyone run inot a bulk source of 1mm foam locally?

[Lundvike]

I was in wally world the other day shopping for the wife's birthday present and I found the foam. Ok so it was more like I was supposed to be shopping for the wife when really I wanted to be shopping for fly stuff. I bought a few sheets and I have found a really simple hopper pattern and here are the results.

 

 

gonna work on the legs and the head a bit. Does not having eyes really make any difference? The site I found this on indicated the eyes were important.

 

Base on a recipe found here:

Global Fly Fisher-Summer Hopper

[dryfly]

Lundvike: I'll take one dozen of those. Clive

[regdunlop]

Edit

[regdunlop]

MTB. That first pic (in the vise) looks like it could be used as a drake pattern of some sort. A few wraps of thread around the tail and it might just work. Just a thought.

[woolybugger]

I use a fair amt of foam sheets....cheapest at the Dollar store & Wally world. You can also find great selection of colors at Michael's, and the price is pretty good too. Way cheaper than any fly shop. If you are doing anything in layers, cut sheets in half & stick 'em together with foam glue (craft shops) or smaller pieces with crazy glue. Elmer's or white glue doesn't hold well on foam. Haven't tried the spray adhesive used in photos shops yet.

[Lundvike]

CAUTION: Krazy Glue and some foam may release a rather nasty gas.

 

I was making a three layer body for a hopper pattern and when I put the crazy glue on the orange foam I got from wally world and this little puff of white smoke comes off the foam accompanied by some bubbling of the glue. Tried very hard not to sample the gas so I don't really know how toxic it would be but with the chemicals involved it can't be good. The problem may have been excess glue.

[Lundvike]

Ok back at it with the foam again mostly trying to work on my fly photography. This is a triple foam hopper I tied.

 

 

 

 

[Ayr]

Nice work guys, thanks for sharing. Here's a couple vids of foam hopper patterns for those still playing with this versatile material;

 

 

 

 

Ayr.

[misterbig]

Nice work MTB--most inventive. Thanks.

 

I like the "strip and wind" results ... but sure like your body shapes.

 

Wally World and Michaels (or any craft shop) have great selections of foam colors. The Darice sheets are 8 by 11 inches and cost about one buck. Nice colors too: tans, yellows, ant red and ant and beetle black.

 

Hello dryfly, the link to the strip and wind for some reason does not work. keep getting page not found error.