[Mike Livingstone]

Anyone out there tried tying woven flies?  I watched the free DVD the FF&FT were giving away a couple of years ago and found that the weave was fairly easy to pick up and have played around to create nymphs, shrimp and corixa patterns.  I also took my largest rainbow (12lb) on one of these.  I would be interested to here if anyone else has been playing around with this technique.  

Along with the parallel weave I have tried the half hitch, tiger and Potts  weaves.  They are all fairly straight forward and can be pretty quick to knock out flies once you get the rhythm.

[Hamish Young]

I had a go but - in the main - I couldn't see a situation arising where the woven pattern would outfish a well dubbed pattern so I gave up  :

[Peter McCallum]

They look the mutts nutts and its a satisfying tie when you get the hang of it Mike, but I must admit I'm slightly on Hamish's side here. It takes a lot of time to make the underbody and if you're using floss to weave a la polish bugs thats essential. Consequently I must admit I prefer Czech type nymphs or the style Davie McPhail wrote about a couple of years ago in FF&FT where he wound floss up the body, ran a line of superglue along the top and cut some fibres on the underside which came away to make legs, much simpler and they sink like polish nymphs.

Still there are thankfully no fly police yet (Magnus aside 29th!! :  : ) so you do it your way, whatever floats your boat!!

Peter

[Mike Barrio]

You'll have to have a blether with Kev Danby, he tied quite a few of these last year Mike.

Best wishes
Mike

[Sandy Nelson]

I tried this a while ago when i got a copy of Darrel Martins book " flytying Methods"
I was using Chenille instead of floss, cos we hadn't seen the czech/polish style nymphs then. It was good fun, I can remember winning a flytying comp with a Woven Perch fry. I guess it was something they hadn't seen much of in 1987

I prefer to tie simple flies these days, but must confess now and then its good fun to sit and tie something complex thats ends up with such a stunning result, it dramatically improves the rest of your flies.

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

Yip, I have been experimenting with these!!..but as always, for Pike  

I tied up a heap of Polish nymphs etc for Grayling and Trout then though that it might be good to get that dark back, light belly on pike flies.

I took size 5/0 hooks and glued/whipped tooth picks along the shank to build up a body shape. I then tied in a tail of marabou and using thick chinelle, I weaved a black back and olive belly...adding red marabou "perctorials"as I went. I then added eyes and that was my floating Perch fry..about 3 inches long. Worked great in late summer...but took hours to tie and was lost in a tree...lol.

I also did a pink and red one..for some fun.

Have also tried using Fritz type materials with great success on big lures for the pike..gold back and silver belly being good.

Lastly, I have been tying Montana Nymphs for years using a weave technic...all good stuff and not just useful for small weighter nymphs.

[Hamish Young]

Rob - try pink fritz. I tie some flies for a guy who goes after old esox lucius with a fly rod in hand and he swears by the pink fritz, outfishes the others I've done for him 3-1.

[Stuart Smith]

i was trying woven flys with braid.i got loads of colours in a sewing shop for very little money.the braid was about 3mm wide which was spot on for bugs in the size 2 to 6 sizes.its also strong and had some sparkle to it.because the braid is almost smooth the bugs sank like rocks.they worked for me

stuart

[Rob Brownfield]

Hamish

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! You are giving away too much!  :

Seriously...hot pink is a fav of mine!

[Peter McCallum]

i was trying woven flys with braid.i got loads of colours in a sewing shop for very little money.the braid was about 3mm wide which was spot on for bugs in the size 2 to 6 sizes.its also strong and had some sparkle to it.because the braid is almost smooth the bugs sank like rocks.they worked for me

stuart

Getting homesick Stuart eh? Looking forward to seeing you when you get back!! :