Tracking fly tying materials requires a bit of sleuthing, given how vendors disguise the original form and function to ensure we buy the small packets offered by fly shops.

Searching for these materials isn’t difficult, but finding the best keywords can be difficult. A good search string quickly produces likely candidates, and invariably one of those leads you to something very close to the original. Investing in a few samples is the best way to determine winners, but there may be dozens of possible options (and colors) and your final choice may take considerably longer.

A synthetic yarn or similar textured material is always harder to find because you can’t “feel” a photograph on a website. The final selection is made more difficult because only touching the material can confirm it has the proper size, nap, or texture. These intangibles are more difficult to describe to a search engine, but AI enhancements and their increased presence in search tools are quickly becoming discerning enough to overcome these shortcomings.

When crafting a search string I typically use terms that reduce the item to form and attributes. Recently I spent some time looking for Thin Skin, used as the wingcase on the Copper John. Starting with terms that describe attributes; “stretchable thin film,” or “flexible paper backed film”, and depending on the volume of items returned, I might add “transparent” or “flexible opaque paper backed film” to narrow the search more. Most of the resultant solution set being a variety of tapes and vinyl wraps used for packaging.

“Stretchy” typically implies a solution set of vinyl, rubber, urethane, PVC, and/or latex – and a thin film of either will be indistinguishable from one another when viewed on a website. Vinyl or PVC may stretch and not snap back to original form, where urethane, rubber, and latex, typically will stretch and recover their original shape.

Poring through the possibilities will often take you into other areas that are not expected, like vinyl window treatment tape for tinting, or reflective coatings for the windows in your home. Many of these may require you buying samples for use in other flies and additional purposes, this being the hidden (costly) silver lining of material discovery.

In my case, I found the Thin Skin replacement as a “heat transfer vinyl” for transferring text and pictures to tee shirts and promotional sortswear. Available in 11 additional colors, and offering six 8.5″ X 11″ sheets for eight dollars – or a 12″ X 8′ roll for sixteen bucks. In addition to sheets of single colors, they had metallic colors, rainbow hued psychedelics reminiscent of tie dye, and a few other options,

For the Copper John – six sheets may be a lifetime supply, so I would order the minimum until you’re certain of the candidate materials lifespan.

Caution: Things that stretch DO NOT like sunlight

Why so cautious? Simple. Things that stretch do not like hot fly boxes or sunlight. Did I find the exact material sold as Thin Skin? Probably not, so you should treat any candidate as an unknown stretchy material that may oxidize in a week … leaving you with a fly box full of copper bodied flies and broken rubber bands.

In this case, an eight dollar investment won’t break you, and six sheets will tie several years worth of flies – giving you ample time to determine if the material can survive a season in your fly box.

Now that you know what industry that it’s in, other vendor’s offerings will emerge giving you additional colors, materials, and price points. I typically will grab a couple of candidates, (especially if the color choices are limited) tying numerous flies with both, and then see how each handles fingers slathered with mosquito repellant and temperatures in excess of eighty degrees.

Amazon sells a small paper cutter for ten dollars, and one of more sheets can be cut at the same time simply by stacking them on the cutter.

I purchased the assortments of browns, greens, and greys, in addition to the traditional black color. Making 1/4″ strips via paper cutter allowed me to process the material into a more usable form – even for Thin Skin. The backing material is clear plastic and the adhesive stays on the clear plastic, it does not transfer to the flexible vinyl strips once separated, making a clean install as scud and czech nymph shellbacks.

As a side benefit, the colored strips have white on one side and are colored on the other, allowing you a free color to use when white is needed for a local watershed. Depending on the size of the flies tied, each 12″ strip typically will tie six to eight flies.

To separate the backing from the vinyl I stuff a scissor tip into the side of the strip to start the process. None of the vendors seem to feel it necessary to add an easier way to remove the backing, so using scissors or a fingernail appears to be the solution.

In either case, stock up a few sheets to test the material and determine how it survives the flybox. Don’t buy more than a starter pack until you’ve confirmed it lasts at least a couple seasons in the fishing vest.