Dollar Store material

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Barry
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Dollar Store material

Post by Barry »

A few days ago I took my monthly pilgrimage to the Dollar Store (Dollar Tree) to see what fly tying materials I could find. They had some Dust Mops that looked like they had possibilities for tying Clousers, Minnows, etc. I picked up the 4 colors they had and took them home to experiment with. The material looks/feels like some kind of soft nylon with a texture very similar to GID Flashabou. I tied some epoxey head minnows with the DM material and compared the results to Minnows tied with Polar Fiber. The DM Minnows came out OK, but the material doesn’t taper like Polar fiber does. It ties very much like some of the more course synthetic hairs.
To sum it up, for $4.00 I bought enough material to tie a hundred+ flys.
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Minnow-EH-#6-Polar.jpg
Minnow-EH-#6-Dust Mop.jpg
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NoBoat
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Post by NoBoat »

We need to have a monthly contest for the best use of found items used in a fly.
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ellisredfish
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? for Barry

Post by ellisredfish »

Barry,
This morning I got up and started tying some Dahlberg Divers and glued some doll eyes that I bought at Michaels. I used Zap-a-Gap with no problem. The first fly was made using natural colored deer hait. Now when I made one using dyed hair, the Zap would not glue the eyes. After several attempts I gave up and used five minute epoxy and got the eyes glued. Have you found this problem with dyed deer hair and the Zap?.
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

ellisredfish
I can't imagine why the CA wouldn't stick to the dyed B tail.
I don't use CA glue for sticking eyes on. It has a tendency to wick into the hair and make it hard and brittle. The glue I use is called 547 Multi-Purpose Glue (craft dept at Wal-Mart) that's a lot like Goop, but cheaper. It won't wick into the material, dries quickly and remains flexible.
Clay
Great idea, sounds like fun, lets do it! When do you want to start?
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livetofish
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Post by livetofish »

oops, there goes one more secret. The fibers are great for clousers and glass minnows. They are very easy to shape with epoxy too.

LTf
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

livetofish wrote:oops, there goes one more secret. The fibers are great for clousers and glass minnows. They are very easy to shape with epoxy too.

LTf

Dasu
Good looking fly! However, I don't know if I'd waste a Salmon hook on it.
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ellisredfish
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Post by ellisredfish »

You are right. The Zap does wick into the hair. Luckily it only soaked the nose of the fly.
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jklepomis
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Post by jklepomis »

Barry

Those dusters look like exactly what I scarfed up a couple of years ago. Tied some nice clousers that I threw in the surf. Problem was they faded over time. Don't know if it was the water, salt, or sunlight. But they caught fish. Before you put too much effort in them, leave some outside and/or in water for a while.

I've also used the grey for a 'live shrimp' pattern I found in Fly Fish America last summer. Soon as I get my digital back from my daughter, I'll post a picture.
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Dave Speer
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Post by Dave Speer »

that's cheating!
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

Jack
You're probably right about the color fade. However, the material is easily touched up/re-marked with colored markers.
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Post by Flyfisher »

Barry,

What size hook did you use for your "dust mop special"?

Ray
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Barry
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Post by Barry »

Flyfisher wrote:Barry,

What size hook did you use for your "dust mop special"?

Ray

Ray
That Minnow was tied on a #6 Mustad 9174 (1Xstrong, 3Xshort) hook.
When I tie any of the profile style Minnow patterns for Saltwater, I usually use a Mustad Live Bait hook (#94151). I've found the above patterns perform better on the extra short hook styles.
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