Woodcock and Orange

[Roadkill]

I thought that one of the objectives to using silk was the opaqueness of the material when wet. When I've tried to put hard as nails, crazy glue or epoxy on the body of the fly it the color was fixed, darker than I had planned and not worth the expense of the silk.

Just the reverse, when you wet the orange silk with water it also gets darker, and translucence allows the hook to influence the color through the silk. When tying steelhead flies if you want to keep the bright color of a silk body, it is common to put silver mylar on the hook shank under the silk.

http://flyillusions.com/2010/02/23/part ... ft-hackle/

[DUBBN]

I thought that one of the objectives to using silk was the opaqueness of the material when wet. When I've tried to put hard as nails, crazy glue or epoxy on the body of the fly it the color was fixed, darker than I had planned and not worth the expense of the silk.

Just the reverse, when you wet the orange silk with water it also gets darker, and translucence allows the hook to influence the color through the silk. When tying steelhead flies if you want to keep the bright color of a silk body, it is common to put silver mylar on the hook shank under the silk.

http://flyillusions.com/2010/02/23/part ... ft-hackle/

I would rather see the pattern photographed while still submerged.
Then there's the idea of adding different waxes, which in my mind would negate any translucency the silk may have.

[Variant]

Bill,
That’s a great looking pattern!
I have fished the partridge and orange and the partridge and green for brook trout, it is a very effective pattern. The only trouble is the silk would fray from the toothy brook trout. I started using cellire then super glue over the body to protect the silk to make the fly more durable.I now use the Solarez bone dry uv cure. It does not yellow or get cloudy like the earlier products and it seems to lock in the translucency so to speak, just like your pattern. I have used the bone dry on silk ,nylon, floss, rayon and the G.S.P. threads.

Lou