As anyone with more than a passing interest in fly fishing knows, the process of making flies is referred to as “fly tying.” The term neatly describes the almost universal use of thread in the construction process. Whether it’s a slip of feather, a twist of dubbing, or a pinch of hair, everything is secured to the hook (or to the tubing in tube flies) with thread. Tying with thread is simply how it’s done.
But some folks march to a different drumbeat. In 1952, the US Patent office granted Lee Wulff patent number US2596457A. This patent is described as “method of forming fishing lures, flies, nymphs, and the product.” In the patent-claims section, Wulff states: “Heretofore lures have been constructed by tying the wing and leg material to the shank of the hook between the eye and wing by winding a thread around the shank, embracing and holding the lure material to the hook. The tying of the knot was trying and exacting and required the skill of an artisan seldom found in an angler.” As he pointed out, not everyone has the ability to work thread deftly, so he developed an alternative approach to making flies. This technique used a liquid plastic, providing a fly body that also secured other materials. He explained it this way:
With the present method a plastic is applied to the hook shank between the eye and the wing and shaped as it hardens to define a fly body, feathers to define wings and material to define legs are dipped-on their ends into liquid plastic, like that which forms the body and placed against the body securing the feathers and the lure material within the surface of the body in an integrated whole. This embraces the wing and leg material within the body so that they cannot be pulled off.
And Lee Wulff wasn’t the only person eschewing thread. While it is seldom tied this way, the original Pheasant Tail nymph was a thread-free fly. Frank Sawyer, the riverkeeper who invented the PT Nymph, used just two materials, pheasant tail and copper wire.
Despite Lee Wulff’s fame, his way of making f lies never really caught on, possibly because it required special molds and the use of solvents. A lot has changed in 70 years, and these days, there is a host of modern materials that make molds and solvents unnecessary. It is time to take a fresh look at Wulff’s idea.
After playing around with the concept, I’ve come to the conclusion that for many patterns, his “threadbare’’ approach is quite practical. It should appeal to fly fishers who have no experience tying flies and also to those who have many years at the vise. Folks with little or no experience can quickly churn out a bunch of flies that will catch fish. Seasoned tyers who are interested in exploring new techniques may find the approach can enhance their flies. Going without thread gives you a better sense of the mechanical properties of various materials, which can improve your conventional “threaded” patterns. Let’s start with some easy threadbare techniques that anyone can do.
Fur
Craft fur has a well-deserved reputation as a fly-tying material. This durable, polymer-based material moves freely in the water and can be used for everything from leech to baitfish patterns. Most threaded flies use the fur after it has been trimmed from the fabric backing. For threadbare flies, this is one step too many. Just cut a suitably sized piece of fabric, complete with hair, add superglue to the fabric and the hook, and squish them together. If you want a tube-fly version, just glue some onto a Q-tip tube or soft silicone tubing. You can use the same technique with rabbit strips, too. A dozen flies should take about 15 minutes.
Foil
Anyone who started fishing using conventional gear probably remembers hooking lots of fish on metal lures. You can make a fly-fishing version of these fish-catching machines using nothing more than a long-shank hook and some foil-backed HVAC duct tape. Unlike regular duct tape, this is designed specifically for HVAC systems. The aluminum is five times thicker than regular kitchen foil and the adhesive creates a strong bond (superglue is not necessary). It can be found at most hardware stores.
Cut a couple of pieces of tape to match the size of your hook, press the hook shank into the adhesive side of one piece and then firmly press the adhesive side of the other piece so it sandwiches the hook. Once you have the foil pieces glued together, trim them to shape, which could be a minnow shape, a lure shape or whatever your imagination might come up with. That’s it — you’re done. Like the fur flies, you should be able to complete a dozen foil flies in 15 minutes or less.
Mount the foil perpendicular to the bend, and you get a fly that wobbles like a spoon. Place it parallel to the bend, and the fly will have more of a darting motion. You can color the foil with regular marker pens to mimic a baitfish or use fluorescent markers to create something more vibrant. If you want to get fancy, a tail made from craft fur, Flashabou, or feathers can be sandwiched along with the hook.
You can add weight to a foil fly by winding lead wire on the hook shank before applying the foil. This is helpful if you are fishing it on a floating line in strong currents. However, the best way to fish it is unweighted on an intermediate or sinking line, which allows you to cover the entire water column.
The pattern is reasonably durable and can be squeezed back into shape if it gets chewed on. If you need more strength, apply an extra layer of foil, a coat of nail polish, or UV resin. Needless to say, a Loop Knot is the key to getting the most action with these flies.
Foam
If you want a fly to float reliably, it’s hard to beat closed-cell foam. Many modern grasshopper, beetle, and ant patterns rely on foam to ensure they stay on top. On windy days, trout will often feed voraciously on terrestrials blown onto the water. Foam-based patterns almost guarantee your fly will float, regardless of how choppy the water might get.
While conventional tying uses thread to secure foam to the hook, this really is not necessary. Foam develops a strong bond with superglue. You can use foam and glue to make everything from tiny midges to big poppers.
For many dry-fly patterns, a slender strip of foam glued to the top of the hook provides ample flotation. It’s also quite easy to glue tails, legs, and wings onto the foam, which is pretty close to what Lee Wulff was doing with his patented Form-A-Lure flies. For larger patterns such as hoppers, dragonflies, and poppers, you get a strong bond by sliding a glue-coated hook shank into a slit cut into the foam. Once the hook is in place and aligned, squeeze firmly for a few seconds.
With larger patterns such as hoppers and dragonflies, you also can use a needle to thread materials through the foam, such as hair, Flashabou, or feathers. You can color the foam with marker pens or a light coating of fabric paint, so plain white foam can be used to make everything from a tan mayfly to a bright-blue dragonfly. A simple hopper pattern with a couple of silicone legs will take about a minute to make.
Paint and UV Resin
Fly tyers use all kinds of materials to build a body on their flies. While dubbing, herl, or floss are all fine materials, you can achieve a realistic and very durable body with fabric paint or UV-cured resin. Paint and UV resin are especially good for folks who need a lot of flies and are OK with a bit of an assembly-line approach.
Fabric paint is waterproof, nontoxic, and very easy to use. Just place your hook in the vise and apply paint to the shank. Scribbles fabric paints have a fine tip that makes application of small quantities easy. Another option is to apply paint with a bodkin. When the shank is coated, spear the hook point into some foam, remove it from the vise, and set aside to dry for a few hours.
UV resin is almost as easy to work as paint and cures in seconds with a UV flashlight. If you need flies quickly, this is definitely the way to go. You can buy colored resins, but marker pens applied to cured resin do a pretty good job. You can also add glitter to the resin before applying and curing, which makes patterns such as midge pupae really stand out.
A resin body is perfect for folks who fish deep nymphs and want their flies to sink as fast as possible. Weight is clearly a key factor in sink rates, but bulk is important, too. Euro nymph patterns such as the Perdigon have taken this to the extreme, but even regular nymphs can benefit from being more svelte. A thin layer of colored or glitter-infused resin on top of a bare shank is about as minimalist as you can get.
Quite honestly, for most nymphs and pupa patterns, a bit of spiky dubbing glued in front of the paint/resin body is all you need. The resulting fly looks every bit as buggy as a traditionally tied fly. If you want to make flies with feather wings and hackles, you’ll need to step up to the next level of threadbare techniques.
Advanced Threadbare Techniques
Working with herl or hackles wound around the shank or a wing post requires a “trap-and-glue” approach in which each material is used to trap the subsequent one. While I had to “discover” the trapping approach through trial and error, it’s basically what Frank Sawyer was doing with his Pheasant Tail Nymph. The wire trapped the pheasant tail against the hook, as well as added weight.
The trap-and-glue approach is probably best explained by describing the steps needed to make a typical, herl-bodied dry fly (see images to the left). In general, you’ll be using poppy-seed-size drops of superglue for these steps. This is usually easier if the glue is applied with a bodkin or needle. (Editor’s note: In his example, Rob uses materials that are easy for the reader to see rather than to replicate a specific pattern. But in our era of “ hot spots” and wild colors, maybe this fly will catch fish anyway.)
While you can start with the tail, it’s much easier to begin with the herl body, since it will be used to trap the tail fibers. Add glue where the body will end and the tail will start. Clip one end of the herl into hackle pliers and pinch the other end with your non-dominant hand. Hold the pinched end of the herl about an inch from the shank, perpendicular or at forty-five degrees to it, and with the hackle pliers, make a couple of turns over the glue, toward the eye. Let the pliers hang so gravity applies pressure while the glue cures. Gently tapping or pressing the herl with a fingertip can help speed up the process and ensure a tight bond. Once the glue has set, clip the short leg of herl close to the hook.
Add glue to the shank and wound herl where the tail will go. Place the tail fibers onto the glue and hold them in place with your non-dominant hand. Make another couple of turns of herl over the tail fibers and the glue. Press or tap gently and let the pliers hang while the glue sets.
To finish the body, add a thin coating of glue along the shank and wind the herl toward the eye until you reach the point where the thorax will start. Let the pliers hang as the glue sets. For a regular hackled fly, add glue to the thorax section of the shank and trap the hackle stem against the shank with a few wraps of herl. Press or tap and let the pliers hang. If the hackle stem is stiff and springy, make a couple of wraps of stem around the shank and pull on both ends of the feather as if they were shoelaces. This will ensure the stem is cinched down tightly to the hook while the glue sets. Add glue behind the eye and wind the hackle forward over the glue in the conventional manner. Let the hackle pliers hang to ensure the glue sets. Pull slightly on the pliers if the hackle stem is stiff. When the glue has set, trim the excess hackle and add some head cement.
For a parachute pattern, trap the hackle with a wing post made from a loop of poly yarn. It’s easiest to loop the yarn in glue under the shank, at the same time trapping the hackle stem under the shank, pulling firmly upward on the yarn while the glue sets. Add glue to the poly above the shank and wind the hackle over the glue-soaked post. Hold the hackle in place with pliers or your fingers until the glue sets. When the glue has set, trim the excess hackle and add some head cement.
Mix and Match
Once you get the hang of going threadbare, you can combine materials to achieve certain effects. A good example is with emerger patterns. Most of these are designed to sit in the surface film, with as much as 80 percent of the fly actually submerged. Many patterns rely on floatant and surface tension to keep the dry end above the water. That works well in theory. In reality, the fly may sit properly in the water, or it may not. And some patterns, after landing nicely on the water, will slip slowly below the surface. Well, some of my flies do….
A quick way to get an emerger that floats properly every time is to glue a piece of foam behind the eye. Once you have a piece of foam glued onto the fly, tie the fly onto some tippet (a Loop Knot works best) and flip it into a basin of water. This will mimic the effect of being cast. Using scissors or nippers, snip away bits of foam until you find the amount of foam that will float the eye, but allow the rest of the hook to submerge. Assuming the body material does not trap air, you should have a fly that sits correctly on every cast. Color the foam with a green or brown marker pen if you want it to blend in, or red or orange if you need something you can see at a distance.
There are some materials that still seem better-suited to conventional tying techniques, such as dumbbell eyes and deer hair. But maybe they just need someone with a more creative mind to solve the puzzle. One can only begin to imagine what Lee Wulff would have done with access to the modern materials and superglue we often take for granted.
Tying a Fly with Superglue and No Thread
