Pretty Penny

[gingerdun]

I wanted to add weight to flymphs without making the tying complicated, and without beads or toxic lead. Since others have been using wire instead of silk on the Clark block, I thought I'd experiment too, especially now while the memories of those mayflies on the Willowemoc and Beaverkill are fresh in my mind.

There is a double strand of wire hidden under the silk wrap down the length of the shank in addition to the visible, double-strand, dubbed rib. I dubbed the abdomen very thinly so the wire would show better there. I space the rib more closely in the thorax.

The wire is impossible to spin with fingers on the block, so I use a Radio Shack wire clip, which is easy to spin between thumbs and forefingers.

I was wishing I had a jeweler's scale so I could measure and compare the weight of this copper wire against beads or lead wire. The weight effect might be negligible, but I like the efficiency, and the way it looks.

Hook: 12 Daiichi 1560
Silk: primrose
Hackle: pale ginger hen
Tail: lemon wood duck
Body: bleached mole with yellow and orange wool spun on "SM" copper Ultra Wire, waxed

[Old Hat]

Lance, I think you have cleverly disguised quite a bit of weight on this pattern and still retained a nice tapered shape to the fly.

[JohnP]

Beautiful fly. It looks like one of your Dad's. Lead-free wire is readily available, by the way.

[Mataura mayfly]

Lance, that is a real beauty of a fly and I believe you hit the nail on the head as far as the easiest lead-free weight option that is non-bead related.

Lead free wires are available, as is tungsten wire from Hends (when you can find it), but in my limited experience it is not as supple as good old lead (or copper) wire, quite springy and difficult to wrap (at least the tungsten is). The other lead free wires are possibly Bismuth or tin bismuth alloys and in my opinion are lighter than lead for the same diameter. Both are harder to cut and will ruin scissors pretty quick. It might be easier to lash several lengths of tungsten wire alongside the hook shank rather than wrap it?
You can buy tungsten powder and mix it with epoxy to coat the hook or even build a body taper....... but all this is getting into the too complicated bag when compared to your simple solution.

Small digital jewellers style scales should be available cheaply on that evil auction site? They can be set to weigh in grams, ounces or grains. Some of those might suit your needs and can be used to weigh unknown fly lines to better guesstimate their true weight.

Now I can stick my head up and have it shot off....... I still use lead wire.

[CreationBear]

Nice looking fly! I've admired Ruard's wire brush flies for a long time, and this one is right up there.

[gig]

That's an elegant looking fly, well tied

[fflutterffly]

Elegant.

[hankaye]

gingerdun, Howdy;

Very nicely done... thanks for the pic of the 2 wire brushes as well.

hank

[Kelly L.]

Love it!

[letumgo]

Lance - This fly is MINT!