Realistic Legs with Heat Shrink Tube

Text & photos: Ulf Hagström

I have never been afraid to experiment when it comes to using different materials in fly tying. Sometimes it’s almost been like the experimenting has been more important than the function of the fly, but more often the end result has been surprisingly good! I will advise anyone to think a bit outside their normal fly tying frames to discover that there is a whole world with strange materials just waiting to be tied on to a hook!

Considering my interest in different materials and willingness to experiment, it was a bit unusual to see the heat shrink tube lying around for almost a year before I got to trying to use it for fly tying. It was when I first got into realistic tying and got inspiration from a whole new world of patterns and fantastic fly tiers that I started to experiment with the tubes. One thing I discovered quickly was how very flexible the material is and it’s just really the imagination that sets the boundaries for what you want to use it for. There are a few things that I discovered immediately:

• The shrinkage is normally 50 %.
• A warm tube is very bendable and also stretchable.
• All tubing I’ve tested shrinks by the heat from a normal lighter.
• The inner diameter shrinks more than the outer diameter, leaving the “wall” of the tube thicker after shrinking than before.
• If you heat very small areas of the tube you can get really cool effects!

I could write a very long article on all the uses I have found for this material and probably still wouldn’t be close to all things that you could do with it. So, this article is only regarding the creation of legs for the larger flies (i.e., Stoneflies and Dragonflies). If used correctly heat shrink tubing is a perfect material for creating individually segmented abdomens, but Im saving that for another article!

The legs on this fly is made from heat shrink tube with “Japanese nymph legs” as the “feet” of the fly. There are two ways you can combine these two materials. Either you stick the JNL into the tube from the beginning, which will give a more durable leg for fishing but will reduce the shrinking of the tube and make it harder to shape. The other way is to insert the JNL afterwards and secure it with thread or superglue. In this example I have chosen to do this. 



Alright, let’s go! 

As you can see on the photo the fly is almost done, apart from the legs. The tube I’m using is one that, when shrunken, is just a bit too thick than what looks good. So when it’s still hot, I stretch the tube as much as possible to make it the right thickness. So why not use the correct size from the beginning? Well, you will see later why I do it like this! When the tube has hardened it’s tied in on the underside of the hook. As you can see I have already done the basic bending on one of the legs. 


 

Here you see the three different levels of thickness on the tube; unshrunken, shrunken, and shrunken and stretched 

Step 1

Since I have already created one leg that I am pleased with I can use that as a bit of a template on where to bend the next one. A good thing can be to mark the legs with a marker where you want the bend to be. Heat your tweezers over a flame for 2-3 seconds an then bend the leg where you want the joint of the legs to be and squeeze down hard. 

  

Let go of the tweezers after a few seconds and you should have a first bend looking something like this: 



Step 2 

Do the exact same thing on the next joint. Heat your tweezers, bend the leg and squeeze down hard with your tweezers. 



Now the leg has got it’s first basic bends and joints, and should look something like this: 



Step 3

To create the tapering of the two sections you again heat your tweezers but this time for a few seconds longer, about 6-7 seconds. Press the tube together with the heated tweezers where you want the thickest part of the section to be. Now you will see why I use a stretched tube. If your tweezers is warm enough the tube will now expand to the normal thickness of the tube to create a nice tapering! This will take some training to get the hang of; the trick is to find the right heat in your tweezers. Keep pressing to make it flat, and also apply lighter pressure up the section towards the next joint to further enhance the tapering. 

continue to page 2 >>

 

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