Foam Flies

[JP Z]

I was trying to tie the STP Frog (Anyone need the recipe or steps bump me and I can point you in the direction, or give you a pdf I created.) But anywho I found at Walmart that in the craft/sewing section they have 12 sheets of 11x17ish foam for $5.96........NICE!!!! They had Easter colors on clearance for $5 so it was great. I'm thinking of tying some Damsel flies with the light/dark blues I got. Anyone else have cool foam patterns?

I also wanted to point out to people you can get that 2mm foam dirt cheap at Wallyworld.

[Ice9]

I've done some glue-n-cut with the sheet foam to make round poppers and block poppers--that's fun, and you can get some interesting color combos by alternating the sheets.

Also check out the Crease Fly at dubya dot flyfishsaltwaters.com/Creasefly.htm--this is a great subtle popper-surface pusher made from foam sheets.

Also I like the Loco-foam--I know the point of the thread was the foam is cheap, and loco-foam ain't cheap, but once you perfect your foam flies if you upgrade to the loco-products you get that cool finish. At saltwaterflies dot com and other salt sites you can find the adhesive sheets to put on your foam that give it the translucent swirly look--very cool. I'm not sure it's any better for the fish but it's lots of fun for the angler.

Also check out the gummi minnow--dubya dot huntersangling.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?key=FLY_FSW-GM02&preadd=action This fly requires the translucent Sili Skin, but it can be made with foam too, and when balanced right it will "walk the dog" and dart and slow-sink over weedbeds. I tie a deer-hair-clouser combo called the Butch Minnow that gets that same action, like a Fluke or a Bass Assassin, a subsurface walk-the-dog that is very effective for baitfish feeding bass.

I used to fish among smallies that would move heaven to get to a damselfly, but nobody ever had a good damsel imitation that caught enough fish to justify the trouble. The funniest was one where we attached a dropper off the tippet above a big popper then dangled a blue damsel imitation so it would literally hang in the air above the surface of the water. It took a while but I finally caught a fish on one of those, the first aerial strike I ever had.

Do damsels work well up here?

ice

[JP Z]

I'm planning to give damsels a shot this year. We have plenty of them cruising and the fish skarf them up so I figured I would try......and I have a lot of blue foam to use

[ice_shack]

There is probably a gazillion hopper patterns on the net for foam. There fun to fish and pretty effective. Like ice said you can glue the sheets together to make foam blocks. I use a spray on adhesive (3M ?) that works good. I tied a couple Dahlberg divers from foam last year and they were really productive with the smallies.

My latest obsession is turning foam poppers and bugs. I made a lathe out of my Dremel tool. Made some plug cutters out of metal pipe to cut foam plugs out of flip flops. Those $3 sandles you get at dept stores (I bring my daughter with so people don't look at me funny ). Using a 3/4" cutter I can get more than 50 plugs and you can glue them together if you need more length.

Only thing you gotta watch is not all foam floats the same. Some of the denser stuff won't support as much weight, but that can be a good thing if you want a slow sinking pattern.

[JP Z]

I was thinking about trying to cut craft foam plugs to make popper bodies, I may just do that. I saw a guy at the Fly Expo using a lathe (dremel) for Popper bodies that had me thinking about them.

[Matt Breuer]

Another great option with foam are ants, I have some black foam that I cut in an oval and use small rubber strips to tie the middle tight and leave the excess hang. Fast easy foam ants!