So, is there anything new in tube  fly tying? To be honest, all the principles remain the same, but components are getting better and better. Few years ago  Mikael Frödin came out with the new turbodiscs and now we can say that this inovation will stay for long. In Kolding fly festival I met Morten Bundgaard from Pro tubes and I was quite impressed with posibilities. So let me introduce this tube fly LEGO step by step.

Rubber discs or Pro Softdiscs as it is named. These 12 mm discs are offered in 7 colors are designed  to handle wing and hackle in shape when fly is chasing current.  If you apply hackle close to the disc, it will stay in shape even in the wildest current, and your fly would not loose the volume .

No dobt – it will help you to feel fly better on the stream also. Rubber is quite soft and what is mor important – seems indestructible.  While designed to handle hackle it can be used as a front disc also.

Plastic discs or Pro hardiscs are offered in wider spectra of diameters : 10, 14 and magnifiscent 18 mm, that are something ultra mega big for salmon flies. I think it can be used for pike flies also and maybe it will have some salt water aplications in the futere.  Theses discs you can use in the same way as softdiscs, but mainly they are designed to stay in the front of the fly. Inner diameter is small, because it is originaly designed to use these discs directly on the tippet, but if you melt a bigger hole in the middle, you can pull these on the plastic tubing also. Colors are typical salmonoid: red, orange, green, black, yellow and clear,  so you can choose one that suits best.  While this discs are quite stiff, they are not loosing any color and not coming whitish, if we bend them. So they must last for some fish too.

Pro conediscs. These are the discs that i was hoping to see in market for years. Deep hole, with the lot of space for head, convex shaped that is opposite that usual concave shaped coneheads have. Of coarse, these discs will have bigger stream preasure than conventional cones, and that`s good. At the moment 4 colors are available (see picture), but green yellow and orange will come out soon. At least Morten have prommised so. There are four diametrs available 5,5 mm/0,14 g; 7,5 mm/0,27 g; 9,5 mm/0,43 g; and 11,5 mm/ 0,63 g.  For me 7,5 mm and 9,5 mm cones are the commonly used ones.  For shure these conediscs must be mounted in front, but  if someone likes he can put them also instead of softdisc beneath the hackle. This will add some extra weight to your fly.

What else can we put on the tubes front? Hm – some coins? Salmon does not have a place to spend these… Maybe Propeller? Fly will not fly of corse. But, these fast rotating creatures will make some noise and vibrations, that can be atractive for fish. Morten told me about the effectivnes of these tinny little things – no salmons for three fishermen without and 6 with cones attached. On the same spot same day. Too impresive to believe imediatelly, so I  will check and let you know. While outer diametrs are 10 and 13 mm inner hole takes tippets up to 0,50, while the hole is 0,60 mm. That 0.10mm difference is nececery to lubricate the tippet with water, that will allow not only free rotation, but will also not harm your monofilament. Some may say 0,50 is not enough – hhmmm, where they are fishing?

Bullettube system is something nice to play with. It consists of plastical tube and bullet weights, that can be mounted in different ways on different color tubes. While plastic remains in the same size and only colors are different, bulletweights are in two sizes and three classical colors – silver, gold and black. So what it`s all about? It`s about mixing – you can apply one big or small bullet on tube ore use two rather big ore small and so on. In other words, this is not only one piece of metal, but much more. With certain combinations out of the 2 bullets,  you can achieve 5 combinations of weight. In the futere i hope Morten will ad few other bullet colors in the pallete, so we can play even more. If you take a closer look on the system you will notice, that end part of the tube, where hook is attached is quite thick.  This system offers loose hook position, but if you like you can fix the hook position wiith pro hookguides.

These are rubber Flexi tubes, that can be applyed on the hook directly, so there are nothing new one can say. But there is something – these soft rubber tubes are conical, and there are several benefits from this. First on the hook this bright tube does not look so bulk, and also you can insert thinest end in the bullet tube system to fix the hook position. Small yet effective improvement. There are two syzes available at the moment in 7 different colors. For me it seems that this is the same material that is used in softdiscs, because colors and stiffness are absolutely the same.

What else? Hhhhmmmm, there are also flexitubes and flexiweights, but Morten still impruvethis system, so I will let you know when it will came out finished!

Lets take a look in simple Willie Gun how Pro tubes are performing.

Tags: Tube fly

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 13:40 and is filed under Fly tying. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.