[VFB] 3D, translucent fly bodies.

[Tom Davenport]

I have been tying some soft hackles for the upcoming trip to the White 
river, and started playing around with materials.  My thinking was soft 
hackles most often imitate caddis flies either emerging or diving,  and 
in both cases air travels with the bug creating a lot of flash.

Tony says that a red bodied fly is the best color for the White river.

So I wrapped a fly's body with red copper wire, then cover wrapped  the 
wire with clear pearl mylar  (I actually used some Christmas tinsel in 
that color that I had laying around.)

Well, the result was quite striking!  Holding the bug up to the light 
and looking at it sideways, it  looked very realistic, segmented  and 
three  dimensional and it certainly had a lot of flash!  Since you can 
now buy copper wire in many different colors I'm going to experiment 
using this style in some of the more traditional nymph patterns I fish.

Since it is difficult  to "invent" anything new under the fly fishing 
sun, I suspect this simple technique has been used by others, but it 
was new to me.

Give it a try, you might like the result.  The question, or course, is 
whether the FISH will like it.