I’ve been holding this one close to the vest for fear of upsetting the Roughfisher, knowing once he catches a glimpse of what’s possible, we’ll be seeing “Darth Earthworm” and the San Juan Worm’s days are numbered.
It’s actually two yarns loosely wrapped together. One is best described as a trilobal-polyester that glitters like broken glass, intertwined with a soft synthetic braid that can be used as a flat yarn, or you can stuff things inside it to stretch it into a veined mayfly wing, or seal the ends to make a San Juan Worm-killer.
The woven strand looks like a shed reptile skin – and whips around in the water like a snake. I used it for the shellback on the October Caddis earlier, and am converting the old SJW to this – more mobile flavor.
The downside is that not a lot of colors are available, and being polyester, dyeing what’s needed is more work than I care to endure. Special polyester dyes are required as is a chemical fixative and a lot of heat.
I flamed the end to melt some rigidity into the tube, threaded it over a 4mm gold bead and added the SJW headpiece. Both tubes are sealed with a lighter to complete the fly. The motion is so much more wormlike than the velvet chenille that I’m tempted to eat it.
What’s needed is a good rich Olive, but I’ve only found the material in black, Lilac Lame (pink), Cream Gleam, Blue Flash, and Maroon Shine. It’s about $2 per skein on EBay.
Tags: San Juan Worm, Paton Glittallic, Polyester, Lurex, October Caddis, fly tying material, Roughfisher.com. trilobal yarn,
my wife found the cream gleam at one of the dollar stores. for a dollar a skein, imagine.
i tried using it several ways, the buggiest was to use it as dubbing. just pull one end until the fibers unravel, even the heat compressed glitter sections unravel.
usually i seperate the flash filaments from the main yarn, then palmer it full length or tie it in at the thorax. you get a denser bit of flash that way.
i was orignally using it for GRHEs, but tied some like Killer Bugs, with and without wire, the local fish ate them as they came.
i did pick up a couple of small carp using a beadhead version, but mostly bass and panfish.
It’s certainly a “chin scratcher” – the mind envisions about 27 uses for one or the other filament – and only testing reveals which have real merit.
I’m still fiddling with the shiny braid – haven’t yet moved to the flashy “polar bear” filament yet.
It sure looks tasty.
fargin icehole
That’s Roughfisher-speak for “send me some.”
I see some very tasty caddis pupa in my crystal ball………..have you tried permanent marker to “dye” the stuff?
Permanent marker works to color it, but I don’t know how colorfast that might be – or how long it will last, Polyester is tough stuff.