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Tube Fly
Preparation - The Basics
By Benson Adams
In
this post I will cover some of the basics of preparing your
tube fly for tying on. It is a fairly simple task, so we
will jump right in. Before I start tying some tube flies, I
usually will prepare about 5-10 tubes so that I don't have
to stop after I have finished tying the first tube fly and
prepare another tube, before starting on the next fly.
The first step would
be to prepare one side of the tube by melting the liner on
the tubing. This is accomplished by bumping the blue part of
an open flame against tube liner. Leave about an 1/8 of an
inch (3mm) exposed, this will be the part of the tube liner
that will curl back forming a lip to help secure the tube
into place.
Usually bumping the
open flame against the tube liner 3-4 times is enough to do
the job. If the lip on the liner tube is forming unevenly,
it can be helpful to slowly spin the tube while bumping it
with the open flame.
If you did this
right, the liner tube should have curled back nicely making
it so the liner tube can not slide back out of the tube
(picture below).
I like to keep a
bodkin, or one the pins from the tube fly vise adapter handy
in case I have melted the liner too much. If you expose the
liner tubing to the open flame for too long, it will begin
to close up. If this is the case, quickly grab the bodkin
and insert it into the hole before the liner tubing cools
and hardens.
Now that you have
one side of the liner tubing prepared, we will start on the
other end. Melting the first side is always the easiest,
because you have plenty of room for error. However, this
time, we need to trim the liner tubing about an 1/8 of an
inch (3mm) from the metal tube itself (pictured below). This
will give us just enough liner to curl back and hold the
metal tube snug in place.
In many situations
you will only prepare one side of the tube before you start
to tie on it, and then melt the other side of the tubing
when you have finished tying your pattern on the tube.
Usually this is done when you plan to add a cone head to the
end of your tube fly, or perhaps if you want to transition
to a smaller tube to help create a smaller head. If this is
the case, be sure to leave a decent amount of tubing uncut
so that you have some room to work as you are finishing the
fly.
If you are having
trouble with your thread sliding off the end of the tube as
you are trying to apply your whip finish, it can sometimes
be helpful to melt a little bit more then an 1/8 of an inch
(3mm) on one end of the tube fly. This will create just a
slight bulge around the end of the tube that will help keep
thread from sliding off the end of the tube when applying
your whip finish.
One last note would
be junction tubing placement. When you begin to tie on your
tube, make sure to start tying about a 1/4 of inch (6mm)
from the end of the tube (pictured below), so that you have
plenty of space to slide the junction tubing on the rear of
your tube fly.
Now that the we have
our tube prepared and ready to go, with 5-10 extra prepped
and waiting as well, lets place it on the vise and let our
creativity flow.
By Benson
Adams 2012 ©
www.northwesttubefly.com/
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