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Do you know how many types of wax are used by tiers? Wax is like music, a matter of taste. Some like it to be sticky, others to be hard, others to be soft and apply it with their fingers. Others hate to have excess wax because it would spoil the shape or color of the fly.

The wax has two main roles:

• to provide adhesion to the thread when adding materials and
• to help add dubbing to the thread.
• to avoid slipping of thread or added materials
• to be able to make external bodies from dubbing that are elastic and waterproof

A side effect is that it colors the thread and changes the final color of the fly. And another side effect, not to be ignored, is that it increases the degree of impermeability.

Hard wax is used specifically to increase thread adhesion. It would be correct to call it thread wax. There are very fine threads that when used slide on materials. For example Kevlar and GSP behave like this. But with a stroke of wax over the thread, everything changes.
Some thread manufacturers understood the importance of wax and produced special thread dedicated to fly tying with a wax treatment: Uni Canada with its famous threads Uni Thread waxed.

Sticky Wax is a type of soft wax is used to work more easily with dubbing. It loads more the tying thread with wax and dubbing is added very easily. Beginners can load with too much wax and the final result is not exactly the desired one.

Finger Wax or Soft Wax it is a type of wax that is soft without being very sticky. It is especially used to apply on the thread directly with the fingers. It is excellent for making external bodies that are also waterproof. It is not a very popular wax because many do not know how to use it correctly.

Wax ( both hard and dubbing types) has a small disadvantage, it is thermally sensitive. That is, when it is cold it becomes hard as a stone and less sticky, when it is warm, it softens a little and becomes more sticky. So if it’s winter and it’s cold in your dressing room, it’s good to keep the wax in your hand, it will heat up easily and it will be even easier to use.

For those tiers who cannot find their favorite type of wax, they can prepare it as they wish. They must mix beeswax, rosin and oil or natural fats like lard. The Rosin gives stickiness and the wax gives it softness.

The proportion between the 3 components changes the final product. Here are some recipes to start from:

Hard Wax:

• Rosin: 65%
• Beeswax: 25%
• Oil: 5%

Dubbing Sticky Wax:

• Rosin: 70%
• Beeswax :10%
• Oil: 20%

Soft Wax:

• Rosin: 20%
• Beeswax: 20%
• CDC Oil/ Duck grease or Pork lard: 50%

Attention, all these products are very flammable, if they catch fire, it is difficult to extinguish. So work with great caution. Melt the ingredients as follows: using “bain-marie” technique melt the rosin, then the wax and then the oil. Pour into silicone molds or tubes and let it cool down. In liquid form it is very sticky, when it solidifies the properties change. If you want to test the final product while the wax is warm and liquid, put a small amount directly in a bowl of cold water because it will harden. Test and change the amount of ingredients depending on how you like it. Always write down what you do so you don’t forget the recipe and the results.

On the market are some nice thread waxes like Veniard tier’s Wax, Hends Bar Wax, Overton’s Wonder Wax and Cobbler Wax.

I used various versions of wax and ended up making the ones I like. My favorite is a hard type, it is an excellent wax for the thread, which gives the thread adhesion without loading it with too much wax. In addition, I like that I can also use it for dubbing.

If you like to test them you can find all these types in Troutline shop: hard wax, soft wax, cdc wax, dubbing wax. The prices are more than reasonable, maybe even the lowest of what can be found in European stores.

Here is a small video about making nymph gills. I started more than 10 or 15 years ago doing them, it is fun but it takes around 8-10min to make a fly. Quite time consuming!

Anyway it is interesting a pleasure to make it if you have the proper materials. I prefer to use Troutline Nymph Skin which I developed after testing all kind of materials. It is much simple with this type of body because the thread used for gills does not slip. Of course, you can use any kind of materials to make the bodies.

Here are the materials:

• Hook: Daiichi #14 D1190 BL
• Thread: Yellow thread from Veevus or UTC 70DEN
• Weight: Tungsten wire
• Tail: pheasant barbs from rooster tail
• Body: Troutline Nymph Skin Regular for medium and large flies and for small flies use Troutline Nymph Skin Small
• Gills: Veevus Stomach

One small secret: to add weight is better to use tungsten wire because it will not make the body bulky. If you don’t have then use lead wire but only in the thorax area.

Stonfo brings us interesting news. This summer Stonfo offers us 4 new tying tools. All of them are interesting, useful, help fly fishermen to make better flies and very important: they have reasonable prices!

As we are used to, on each product packaging there is information and helpful drawings on how to use the tools.

It is a simple and easy to use tool for tying flies with CDC. This tool is cheap and durable. The shanks are slim, maybe a little bit too slim but you can fix easily and precise each feather. I test it and I consider very useful. I would prefer it to be a little heavier, not to rise when you work with it, but with a little attention, this tool makes your life easier. It is available here: CDC Block

This tool is the Italian approach to working with CDC. it’s a new way of working with feathers. For CDC enthusiasts, this tool is a must have. We have it in our shop here: Stonfo Winding Tool

The Stonfo Trimmer has an ergonomic handle, a thin blade which perfect for tying threads closed to the fly boy. You can cut other material during tying time. The needed wich is positioned at the other end of the tool is very sharp and can be used for different purposes like applying resin, arranging hackle, splitting fibers and threads.

This tool has extra blades available in the same pack, which is great because you can use these spare blades when you like. All instructions about changing a blade are printed on the product blister. You can see this tool in our shop here: Stonfo Trimmer

Another useful tool is the Stonfo Thread Trimmer which has a thread blade at one point and a super sharp needle at the other end. The thread blade is in “V” and at angle. In this way you can cut thread of different thickness. Because the thread blade is in V shape and positioned in angle you can cut anything very close to the body or behind beads.

You can find it in our shop here: Stonfo Thread Trimmer

Baetis as a nymph is a pattern that I love to have it in my box. The insect is very abundance in all rivers from Europe and represents a great source of food for trout and grayling. In certain moments this insect is predominant and that made the fish to feed in frenzy. In those moments, both trout and grayling are very picky with what they eat and a good imitation is the key to success.

I often make this fly in very small sizes and when the rivers is fast I make the fly as simple as possible and I use a tungsten bead to help the nymph to go down and fast.

If the rivers are medium slowing and shallow, I prefer to make the baetis nymph without bead. I use tungsten wire to give her weight. I noticed that the beads sometimes scare the fish and a better fly silhouette is more effective.

Some tips if you like to make these versions:

*use small hooks in size #18 -16 ( with maximum 2xlong shank )

*make slim profile because the insect is delicate

*for body I prefer synthetic nymph skin in size small (wich I designed and tested for 2 years), In the past I used peacock quill which is very fragile. Of course if you like you can use yellow thread ribbed with brown thin thread. But I like the synthetic material because it gives nice body segment, is durable and help the flies to sink faster.

10-15 years ago TroutLine had a very good dubbing made of synthetic dubbing. The very bright colors were excellent for the thorax area. Now they updated the mix to actual needs when the fish are more careful with what they pick.

The new mix contain different synthetic fibers in different colors and texture ( fibers with pearly reflexes, thin mylar and thin “seal fur like” fibers in solid colors all mixed together). I found the mix very nice and quite effective. The colors are slightly different , almost all are dark. In this way the contrast between the fly and ambient is strong enough without scary the fish.

I personally used all colors for making the thorax area for my simple pheasant tails:

The hot spot dubbing can be used for wet flies behind hackle, will give a nice sparkle effect without being too aggressive. I made a few buzzers and I had a few nice trout on those flies in Alps. But I’m not a fanatic using buzzers and I cannot give advices in this direction.

In any case, this material can be used for any fly. It all depends on everyone’s creativity and imagination.

for example bellow is a jig nymph where I use this material for making the complete body with hot spot dubbing.

I hope you like it and the flies too 🙂

Cheers,

Lucian