I read today about some flies being tied with hot glue as opposed to epoxy. I've never tied with either, but happen to have a glue gun... I broke it out tonight and was really impressed with how utterly horrible I did at the vice. Any suggestions on tying with hot glue? Also, how about that EZ Shape as an alternative?
For bonefish bitters I found it easier to make the blanks and then tie in any tail material. Tie in the bead chain eyes and then take the hook out of the vice and place on a piece of wax paper. Makes it easy to shape the hot glue and it doesn't stick to the wax paper.
You can also wet your finger to make sure you don't burn yourself and help shape the glue. I also use the tip of the gun to take away material after it has hardened after the initial application.
Take a hook, put it in your vice, make sure you have a rotary vice.
Tie in some eyes.
I like to wrap a bit of flashy stuf around the front part of the shank, or take colored tying thread in the color you want. Then put on some nice drops of hot glue on the colored part and dumbell eyes.
Now the best trick I know is take a lighter and hold it far underneath the fly. Start rotating the vice and the heat of the lighter makes the hotlgue melt into a drop shape. When it's the shape I want I just let the fly drop in some ice cold water or my beer.
After you tied a bulk of body's, you tie in the feather/hairy stuff, don't do that earlier, cause the heat of the lighter will burn/damage all the hairy/feathery things.
Good luck!
I ended up using some Rio Knot stuff... basically UV Knot Sense. I think they turned out pretty good. Need a coat of Hard as Nails when they are done though.
I tried to insert an image, but I don't think it's working...
Bjorn, I have been using tuffleye for my bonefish bitters. Here is a larger version called the Boom Creek Special, a fly for small tarpon. The first photo shows a mono "frame and the second is a better photo of the fly. This is on a size 1 hook.
I've had some fun with hot glue in the past :lildevl:
One the plus side, I found the glue-gun a lot faster than epoxy once you get the technique down.
The one downside I noticed was a tendency for the glue to soften if allowed to get too hot under the sun. Not a problem during normal use but be careful where you leave the fly boxes. :smokin:
I think a buddy told me all of his bonefish bitters melted in the box once.
Bjorn, I did not mean to imply the boom creek is a replacement for the bonefish bitters. Totally different fly. I just wanted to show the technique. I have done these with epoxy but it take longer to turn so they set up. Tuffleye was easier and i am sure any of the similar products will work. I think your bitters would knock the boners dead. Did quite well on olive bitters in Belize and that was while fishing on tan sand but there was plenty of turtle grass around.
Good looking fly. I've settled on UV Knot Sense, which dries well and is pretty easy to work with. Not bringing too many, mostly just tying A LOT of different gotchas in different sizes with different weights and materials... bunny, rubber legs, calf tail, dubbing, etc. I'll have some bitters and some velcro crabs along too, but I'm having a lot of fun playing around with different gotcha types. We'll see how they work.
I'll make sure to have some olive bitters along! Thanks.
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