Fly Tying - Get Creative with Coloured UV Resin

from FFE Magazine 2020

The Dam Tsunami - The Invisible War Against Rivers in Europe

UV glue has revolutionised many aspects of modern fly tying - and fly tyers across the globe are getting increasingly creative with their streamers, nymphs, and dry flies. Now, coloured UV glues have entered the scene - and, in the following, Brett Zundel provides some inspiration for what you can do with it.

BY BRETT ZUNDEL

Fly fishing is rich with tradition. Yes, technology has made gear lighter, tougher, and easier to use, but the essential tools required and the anatomy of the cast remain largely unchanged.

Fly tying has followed a similar trajectory. Books published 150 years ago offer descriptions and directions for recognizable patterns requiring tools and materials that are still present on most fly tying benches today.

To put this in perspective: these books were written on desks illuminated by gas lamps, predating the dawn of electricity by decades.

Think of the technology required to deliver the YouTube video, recorded on the other side of the world, to your phone; and then think that the tools and materials in that video would be recognized by men whose definition of long-distance communication was a telegraph.

Considering the snail’s-pace of fly tying’s evolution, it is somewhat surprising that fly tyers have a fascination with new materials and techniques.

A few short years ago, tyers were content to fuss with epoxies and all that went along with them: the mixing, waiting, wheeling, uneven settling, and the unused (and therefore wasted) resin.

Coloured UV glue can ad that extra little spark and spunk to a fly that would otherwise attract less attention. It’s capable of drastically enhancing visibility, but it can also be mixed in order to carefully imitate subtle colours on, for instance, nymphs and emergers.

**Sometimes, small things get the trout feeding - like some added gloss, a strike point or a bright colour that’s visible in turbid water.**

The Rigging invasion up of for UV steelhead resins was in swift, as tyers quickly recognized their benefits: Northern Infinite California work time and instant curing mean no wheels, no waste, and flies that are ready to fish instantly. It is no longer appropriate to call UV resins new or novel, as they have earned their spot in the kits of tyers all over the world.

The beauty of clear UV resins is that they add durability and depth to a fly without altering the color. Tyers have used clear UV resins for everything from coating midges and buzzers, to creating wing cases, building glossy heads on steelhead flies, strengthening intruder bodies, giving eyes a dome-shape, and adding gloss and durability to nymphs. The fly is improved without any major modifications to its appearance.

We are now experiencing the second wave in the UV revolution: the arrival of colored UV resins. Used and cured in the same way as clear UV products, the colored versions include a pigment that is permeable to light, allowing them to achieve the same quick, durable cure.

The beauty of colored UV resins is that they present tyers with the possibility to do something different without having to go through the learning curve of tying with new materials or implementing new techniques.

UV resins are intuitive and easy to use, and using colored resins is no different than their clear counterparts. Though they can be used in the same ways to build the same components, the results are far more dynamic: A red wing case that pops. A blue head that stands in contrast to the tan collar. A realistic olive caddis body. A yellow coating thin enough to reveal the subtle flash rib underneath. A twotone intruder body. A white belly on a baitfish pattern.

Most materials are purchased with a particular pattern, color and size in mind; surely every tyer has a drawer full of un-used and forgotten materials, having Searching used for one-fly’s-worth some fishable of micro tubing, pink wire, purple waxed thread, water or obscure in Central beads. Oregon

The same tube of UV resin used to create a green wing case on a size 18 Copper John is the same one that can be used on a big stonefly body, a little Perdigon, a low-water steelhead fly, or a massive streamer. Further, these resins can be added as an afterthought to a pattern that was ‘complete’, but looked like it lacked that special something.

UV resins are intuitive and easy to use; and using colored resins is no different than their clear counterparts

As with all UV products, the results of using colored UV resins will be determined, in large part, by the strength and quality of the light that is used to cure them. This is especially true with colored UV resins, as the included pigments can hinder the ability of light to penetrate and cure the resin. Tyers would do well to invest in a quality lamp and ensure that the batteries are fresh and/or sufficiently charged.

In the same way that we have seen UV resins replace traditional cements and epoxies as the standard way to finish flies, colored UV resins are increasingly common on benches of the most creative tyers in the world.