Hans,
The points you bring up on creating a smooth floss body are excellent. One of your first points is achieving an even underbody:
"First and foremost, the underbody has to be _level_! Without this your ship has already sunk before it has touched the water."
I've always thought that the tag ends of the materials needed to be secured to the shank all the way to the head or eye of the hook shank. Looking at Ron Lucas' tutorial on FAOL, he seems to go a different direction by trimming that tag ends within the rear portion of the hook shank. To me, this would result in an unlevel situation, yet the photos of his floss bodies show a beautiful evenness. He attributes this evenness partly to the way he trims the tags early. On the Spey flies, I'm are using multiple ribbings (2 ovals and a flat). I also try to lock these ribbings in at a location on the shank that achieves the rib spacing desired. Applying Ron's technique would seem to result in a smoother body once past the tag ends. What do you think?
Steve
