Extended Bodies

One of the ways to tie extended bodies for mayfly patterns is to use a needle but I always had trouble sliding the material off the needle once the dubbing was wrapped on. That along with the fact that there is no underbody - there was always a durability issue. So - thinking a bit outside of the box - I came up with this method last weekend - fished it last night and liked them. Even had a few takers. Anyway - for those who want to give it a try - here it is... and bare with me on this one.

Materials:




1. Insert a needle into the vice jaws and coat with a thin layer of vaseline. This aids later on in sliding the body off the hook.







2. Using GSP thread - start the thread at the tip of the needle and wrap towards the vice. Do not use too much tension on the thread and do not trim off the tag end once the thread has been started.






3. Once you have wrapped the thread far enough to the rear - pull the tag end over the top of the base of thread and wrap to the front a few turns securing the tag. Lay the tail material on top of the needle using tail material of choice. Here I used Microfibbets but moose mane works just as good. Secure the tail material to the needle by wrapping to the tip of the needle. Then take a few wraps towards the rear and whip finish off.











4. Wipe off the excess vaseline and coat with head cement.





5. Take some loose natural dubbing, lay the end on the needle and slowly spin the jaws of the vice. The dubbing will grab hold after a few turns and you can coat the needle with the dubbing moving back and forth across the needle.








6. When finished - take the needle out of the vice and roll the needle between your fingertips to form the body. Then put the end of the needle into a pair of needle nose vice grips and using a stiff pair of tweezers, push the body off the needle end. Make sure you push against the thread base put down earlier. This is where the vaseline and the correct thread tension come into play. Too tight of thread wrap at the start will make it harder to push off.









7. This is what is left once it is off the needle.





8. Tie in the extended body on top of the hook and complete the fly.