Silver Bodied Flies

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Silver Bodied Flies

Post by William Anderson » Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:29 am

Gents,

Do you guys use silver bodied flies? I've seen lots of patterns lately using a silver tinsel , or some other "silverish" body, and I've tied a couple myself with bright silver wire. I didn't put them in my box though. When it came time to reload my rows of five of each pattern, they didn't make the cut. Are there particular waters that you guys prefer this type of body? Murky water, very fast water, still water? Just curious. It's not like I dont have enough patterns that need to be tested after a winter of tying, but I could be convinced to add this to the mix if you thought it was one of your better patterns.

I posted this on Dennis' Twin pattern in fly dressing, but it seems more appropriate here.

Any thoughts?

William
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by skunkaroo » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:44 am

Interesting, Mike. I might have to take your observations for a test run. A lot of my fishing is directed at coastal cutthroat, and like crows they like something shiny on occasion. I'm thinking the Priest or something similar (like Hans' recent Starling and Ice with a silver body/rib) might work well.

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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by skunkaroo » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:09 pm

Not all coastal cutthroat are sea-run or estuary-run fish--the name is simply a subspecies classification. It's mostly the smaller fresh water resident fish I'm thinking of with respect to shiny soft hackle flies. These are very opportunistic feeders and a little sparkle seems to help--whether on the body or (gasp) in the form of a bead.
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by William Anderson » Fri Apr 17, 2009 1:20 pm

hmmm. On the other hand, I wouldn't hesitate to use a silver bead in place of a copper or gold bead on a nymph.

w
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by skunkaroo » Fri Apr 17, 2009 5:30 pm

*chuckle*

I must say that I have seen and tied some lovely imitative flies that are beautiful to behold, but couldn't catch a fish even if they were bounced off its poor snout. True imitation has to be considered in broader strokes than the mere visual cues we ascribe to the subject--weight, movement of body parts, relative position in the water column, movement with the water column, etc. must be considered part of the imitative puzzle. I disagree that "none of these things are imitative qualities as such." Beads, lead and all things that effect a flies behaviour underwater or on top of it are in many ways more imitative of insects than the many visual similes we create.

Think of the glint of sun off the trapped gases in the emerging chironomid, the gradual ascension of the mayfly or rapid rise of the caddis--all effected by the materials we bring to bear on the subject. Surely the Halfordian ideal has no place in our modern world?

Aaron (with a little wink and a nudge)
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by scotfly » Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:15 pm

Great insightful post Aaron, but.....
skunkaroo wrote: Surely the Halfordian ideal has no place in our modern world?
Strewth! Don't ever say that on a Chalkstreams board :shock:
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by Johnno » Fri Apr 17, 2009 6:46 pm

A look in my fly boxes would show how that out of approx 15,000 flies (I have a lot of fly boxes ok? :) ) you would be hard pressed to find many silver or gold bodied flies other than on a few streamer patterns.

One that is seen down here now and again is a 16 - 12 hook, tail of red hackle fibres, body of silver flat tinsel, thorax of peacock herl and a black hen hackle. Never used it myself with any startling success.

Interestingly I far rather prefer fine gold wire as a rib than silver.......just me I guess, no other particular reason. (and I have just run out of extra fine gold wire and you think I can find any anywhere?? :D )

At the risk of going OT - What Mike says about Beads: I far prefer dull black beads or if they are gold or copper then heavily tarnished. I find that other than early season or higher discoloured water, our trout - browns in particular - will often spook from them. Even flashbacked nymphs have to be pretty subtle.
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by skunkaroo » Fri Apr 17, 2009 8:22 pm

Mike wrote:I could simply have written that I don't use bead heads because I don't like them, but I attempted to explain to some extent why I don't like them. It is merely my personal choice, and not a "Halfordian ideal". I attempted to make that clear in my post. Obviously I failed to do so.
Oh, you made yourself clear, Mike. The Halford crack was meant in jest. Obviously I failed to communicate that. Sorry.

No, the meat of my response was merely to offer a counterpoint to your thoughtful post. I'm not a huge fan of beads, lead, mylar, etc. myself, but they do play a role in fly design and have imitative properties--not visually but in terms of their impact on the "aspect" of a fly. I've been dallying with this subject for a while, hence my interest in your comments.

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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by RnF » Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:49 pm

This is an interesting thread. Seems like most of you haven't had a lot of success using silver wire or tinsels on flies. I however have had a tremendous amount of success with silver bodied flies or silver wired flies.

But, I have really only had good success with silver bodied flies when fishing during a midge hatch. When mayflies are about, I prefer gold wire... actually never had much luck with gold bodied flies other than a muddler minnow.

Instead of plain silver tinsel, I prefer holographic tinsel. It reflects better and with more colors. I haven't had nearly as much success with plain silver tinsel. The fish seem to like it too.
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Re: Silver Bodied Flies

Post by Ruard » Sat Apr 18, 2009 3:13 pm

RnF wrote: Instead of plain silver tinsel, I prefer holographic tinsel. It reflects better and with more colors. I haven't had nearly as much success with plain silver tinsel. The fish seem to like it too.
Fishing for Rudd and Perch I mostly use a holospider as a pointfly and I think it is better than any other.

see also: http://www.flymphforum.com/phpBB3/viewt ... p?f=6&t=56

I did fished today with two holospiders and caught some nice Roach and Rudd. One of the Roach was allready rough: ready to spawn. It was a nice day with a beautiful son.
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