Single Foil Fly

Materials List

Make The Tail

Attach the thread to the hook at the hook eye. Cut about 20-30 strands of White Kinky Fiber from the hank. Put a taper in the material by lightly pulling on the ends of a few fibers two or three times. Wrap the fiber around your thread at the mid point and secure the fiber starting at the hook eye and working back stopping at the hook point. Do no go past the hook point. Advance the thread a few turns up the shank. Try to keep the material on top of the hook shank.

Pull 5 - 10 strands of Angle Hail from the package, foil it in half around the thread and attach it at its midpoint. Advance the thread to the hook eye. Cut about 15-25 strands of Olive Kinky Fiber from the hank, put a taper in the material and attach at its mid point and advance the thread to the hook point. Whip finish the thread and cut. Your are now done with all the tying of the fly.

Cut The Sticky Foam Body

Take a piece of Sticky Foam about 2” x 3” and fold it in half length wise. Do not remove the paper carrier. Hold the foam body over the body to start the fitting process. The body is basically a tapered triangle with the bottom rounded off slightly. Cut the Sticky Foam with the longest scissors that you have and try to cut it in one long cut. Small cuts will leave bumps that are hard to remove. It will take a few flies before you get the shape that you like. Once you get a good shape, trace the shape on a piece of hard thin cardboard and save it as your templet and write down the hook size and other information that you can use to make the next on.

Mount the Body

After you are satisfied with the shape, you can mount the body of the fly on the hook. On the inside bottom edges of the body, run a SMALL THIN BEAD of Zap-A-Gap on each edge about 3/4 of the way down the body. Less glue is better. Fold the body in half, but do not let the glued bottom edges tough. Hold the body over the hook with your two fingers at the bottom front edge. Move the body over the front of the hook and lightly pinch the front bottom edge around the hook shank. The body should extend slightly below the hook shank. The body should be now glued to the hook shank only at the hook eye. With the body attached at the hook eye, rotate the vice/fly so that the bottom seam is facing you.  Slowly work the seam from front to back, pinching only the bottom of the fly closed. If done right, a small bead of glue will be pushed down the hook shank as you close the seam. To close the tail section, apply a small drop of glue behind the hook bend and squeeze the tail shut.

Apply The Foil

Peal the paper backing off the body and save. You can use the paper as your template for your next fly. Rotate the fly to get access to the back of the fly. Take a strip of Pearl BuzFly Foil and attach it to the fly starting at the bottom of the fly dull side down. Rotate the fly and wrap the foil over the top of the fly back down to the bottom of the other side. Lightly press the BuzFly Foil onto the body of the fly. Slowly peal the BuzFly Foil off the fly. If the BuzFly Foil sticks, try pulling from a different part of the fly. If you get blowout (areas that the foil did not stick to), roll the BuzFly Foil back down onto the fly to reapply it and then remove the it.

Color The Body

Apply the markers from light to dark working from the bottom up. When applying markers, try laying the marker on its side and pull it across the foam. If you want a white bottom, start at the middle with your first color. Use a scrap piece of foam to blend the markers. It is best to work one color at a time. Add the next color and blend. In this case, the green was added to the top crease, blended down to the yellow on both sides.

A second coat of green was applied to the top of the crease and lightly blended down both sides into the green creating a two tone green. Add prismatic eyes and additional markings to the fly. I like to color the front edge of the fly red and fill in the throat with red markers. You can take your scissors and insert the point and shaft down the center of the fly to adjust the shape.

Coat The Body

Mix 30 Minute Epoxy or 5 Minute Epoxy in equal parts on a Post-it. If the epoxy is very thick, hold it up to your tying light for 15 – 30 seconds. Apply the epoxy to the top of the fly and then spread an even THIN coat over the sides, bottom and top staying away form the front red edge and the throat. If you want to stuff the head of the fly, you can stuff it with a scrap piece of foam to add some more buoyancy and fullness to the body. Coat the inside hook shank with epoxy and the front red edge last. Let the fly dry on a wheel. The fly is now complete and ready to be fished. If you used a synthetic tail, you can trim it now or trim it on the water to tune it.