Woven Flies

Woven Bodies

WOVEN BODIES

The concept of the woven fly is not new, in fact, there are those who feel that it is the only true western fly art form.
I have been thoroughly enthralled by this method for the past 10 years and have translated more patterns to it than I, or you, care to discuss.

There have been many great weavers. I grew up in Montana where men, such as wig-maker, Franz Pott, made the running loop wrap popular with his mite series of flies. Dan Bailey used his shuttle or parallel weave to make his mossback. These flies gave me first-hand experience of the durability and appeal of the woven fly.

George Grant wrote the definitive statement on hackle weaving in his book The Master Fly Weaver. This book not only details his work, but equates others who contributed greatly to the history of weaving.

As of late, Trorill Koruile, of Norway, started crocheting flies which also falls into the class of woven flies. (Koruile has written a book that is only available in Norwegian at this time.)

This method makes one of the most durable flies I have ever used, and with the right materials you can copy just about any tying style. It is the double cast off method. It may sound complicated, but it is nothing more than the old overhand weave. If you can tie your shoes, you can use this weaving method.

The wovelyn body fl usually be made of three parts: underbody, upper braiding material, and lower braiding material.

The under body must be made out of a material that allows it to remain smooth. Weighting of the fly must be done before the final under wrap of the underbody is applied. This allows each weave to slide to its final resting position with minimum disturbance of the material. The upper braid will form the shell back or back; the lower braid will form the underbelly.

The underbody is the core of most of the weaving problem. In order to get a uniform body, you must have a smooth even underbody. If the body transitions from one size to another, you must not have any steps or abrupt changes. The body must be smooth and evenly tapered; this will give you even segments in the weave.

Gaps in the underbelly are a very real problem if they are larger than the diameter of the material used for the bottom of the weave. The underbelly showing a large amount of underbody will distract form the cosmetics of the fly but will very rarely bother the fishability. Try to hold gaps to a minimum, practice will take care of most of them.

The big bugaboo most people find in the weaving is material tension. Using the overhand weave, you will find the material must be tensioned with a even pressure so the knots will not slip.
Pulling the knots at different angles varies where the knot ends up, creating realism in your body.
Positioning the body materials is really quite simple if you follow two simple rules:

1. For fast water, the upper braiding material and the lower braiding material are secured to the top of the hook. Binding both down uniformly ensures the material do not slide around the hook. This will form a round or egg-shaped body which is the silhouette of most of the fast water bugs.

2. For soft or still waters lay the materials on the sides of the hooks this will give you a flat body such as a dragon fly or damsel nymph.

Working with various materials, and by placing them in these two positions described will vary the body shape to meet most situations.

In order to gain anything , you must have perseverance. This applies to weaving, as with all fly tying. I am reminded of a story. When I was polishing my speycast, Mike Maxwell, of speycasting fame, was my instructor. He lived in Vancouver, B. C., and I, at the time, lived in Ketchikan, Alaska. Needless to say the phone was used a great deal. I would call Mike any time things were not doing well. Mike had a pat answer. He said to cast a least ten hours per casting step. (The speycast is a multi-stepped cast.) After that, the calls were less frequent and the cast developed readily. So don’t be discouraged. Work on your weaving, as you would any other discipline, until you are satisfied.

I have spent a number of years working on a simple technique for weaving bodies. In doing so, I have discovered some outstanding methodsand materials which will make the process less frustrating. The materials to weave good tight bodies are not hard to find if you are willing to invest the time. However, I have included a complete product lines in my site; so you do not have to spend a great deal of time looking for the braids, flosses and chenilles

The selection of body material is endless. In the past, I have seen bodies made out of just about any material from hair to thread.
I have literally experimented with dozens of products to get a good looking fly which is durable and catches fish. The problem I had was getting the desired effect and mating the materials together.

The woven bodies look best on curved hooks whether you are tying nymphs, wets, streamers, salmon or dries. The little curve adds so much more to the fly. I also carry some of the harder to find curved hooks.

COMING SOON WOVEN FLY GALLIERY

A REALIST LOOK AT FLY WEAVING

mailto:speybum@comcast.net

WRITTEN BY AARON REIMER.
Copyright © 1999 by [RIVER RUN ANGLERS]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 02 Jul 2004 14:17:34 -0700 .

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