Jelly Mayflies & Emergers

[Sage]

I was paging through the Aug/Sept 2009 edition of Africa's Original Flyfishing Magazine and was intrigued by Marc Griffiths' article on these flies.

It suddenly dawned on me that I had some of this fantastic material that is available from most, if not all bead shops. Beaders call it Stretch Magic and others call it Jelly Cord and a number of other names. Safe to say it's a highly stretchable polymer cord.

So, off I went and hauled it out, blowing off the dust in the process and proceeded to tie up a couple of mayflies, also using it to tie caddis patterns.

Of note were the stretchy qualities of this material and the ability to regulate the tension to taper the body to a certain extent. When held up to the light I noted an "organic translucence" which I found very natural and appealing. (I hope the fish are on the same page as I am )

This stretch magic comes in a number of colours including black, purple, pink, orange, light blue, light green and clear. It also comes in two diameters, 0.5mm and 0.7mm, the narrower option being really nice for smaller flies, #16 and smaller.

What I did note is that using white thread, clear stretch magic and a marker to colour the white thread, there is no real need for any of the other colours. The purple and black versions aren't translucent but using clear on top of purple or black coloured thread, the colour becomes much more natural. (The included photos show flies tied with black and purple stretch magic, not the technique described above)

As regards price I paid R21.00 for 5m of the 0.7mm diameter offering and R16.50 for the 0.5mm option. 1m packs are also available at R4.50.

It is worthwhile to note that due to its über stretchy properties 1m will go a long way. The #16 mayflies in the attached photos used approximately 12mm per fly.

Easy to use, this material produces great bodies, the article in the magazine I mentioned above is a good one with good recipes and definitely worth a read. Whether it's for trout or yellows or maybe the bodies of Crazy Charlies, I think flies tied with this material definitely deserve a place in any fly box.

Happy tying!

[Booger Rose]

Hi Sage, looks like great flies, like the soft hackles!

I know of a few guys that use this wonder material as shock tippets to protect that really thin tippets.

[nkula_nkula]

Very very nice patterns.....

Will definitely be sourcing some of this jelly cord/stretch magic. Thanks for sharing your ties!

[Rendier]

Very very nice patterns.....

Will definitely be sourcing some of this jelly cord/stretch magic. Thanks for sharing your ties!

StreamX has some in various colours and diameters

[Sage]

I found this thread on the forum regarding the "jelly cord". There are posts about price and colours. If the guys are still getting the stuff at the prices mentioned then I got ripped and this stuff is dirt cheap!

http://www.flytalk.co.za/forum/showt...ght=Jelly+cord

Thanx for the great comments, always much appreciated!!

[1in10]

Very nice boet.

[Babyson]

Fantastic flies Paul, thanks!

[JanK]

Fantastic looking flies there - thanks for sharing.

Are those all size #16 - even the curved long shank soft hackles?

[Sage]

Fantastic looking flies there - thanks for sharing.

Are those all size #16 - even the curved long shank soft hackles?

Hi there Jan

The curved long shank flies are tied on #16, some of the hooks are old Targus hooks and the others are Grip. For the record the Grip hook is the better hook, I snapped some of the Targus hooks while stretching and palmering the stretch Magic. So such misfortune with the Grip hooks.

The caddis patterns are tied on #10 (black) and #12 other colours using Gamakatsu and Mustad hooks. The Mustad is a thicker gauge wire.

Thanks for your kind words! I think these flies show a lot of promise and will get to test them out in the next week or so. Will report back!

Regards


Paul

[Sage]

Fantastic flies Paul, thanks!

Thanks bro!