Glo Brite Floss
GB-
$4.50
Glo Brite Floss: Fly Tying Materials and Supplies
Not long ago, I found myself, no surprise, visiting with Marcos at the Hareline Dubbin Warehouse in Monroe, Oregon. Sometime during our conversation, Marcos reached into a cardboard box stuffed with a dizzying array of fly tying materials, rooted around for several moments, and pulled out a handful of spools, each filled with some sort of radiant material.
I peered at the spools, turned them on end and read - Glo Brite Floss with a hand written number on the label to indicate the color code. Marcos had my full attention. This was one of the new for Hareline's 2012 fly tying season catalog products. I am fond of a wide range of floss or floss like products, including Pearsall's Marabou Silk Floss and Uni Yarn, the latter really isn't floss, but you get the drift.
The character of a fly is greatly influenced by the nature of the materials used to construct it. Please excuse the obvious-ness of this statement, but it is so true that we sometimes overlook the implications. Take for example a familiar summer steelhead fly, the Mack's Canyon. If you have ever seen one of these flies tied in a traditional manner with a dull orange coarse orange yarn, and compared this to the same fly tied with Fl Orange Uni Yarn, the two flies are shockingly different. The same is true with a Green Butt Skunk tied with chartreuse chenille versus the same fly tied with Chartreuse STS Trilobal Dubbing.
This is not to say that one material is necessarily superior to another in its fish attraction power, although it may very well be, but it is clear that he flies look very different, and as creative products of each fly tyer, the choice of materials is crucial to the artistry each fly exhibits.
This is one reason why I get excited every time some new dubbing, chenille, thread, or floss becomes available. Another reason is that new dubbings, chenilles, and flosses may or may not offer improvements in the technical aspects of fly craftsmanship.
Short story long, I took my little handful of Glo Brite floss home and went to work testing it. Not immediately, mind you, but within three weeks I had applied Glo Brite to several different fly patterns and the results were most pleasing. I tied winter steelhead flies with a full long body of Glo Brite, summer steelhead flies with short slim butt sections of Glo Brite, and Chinook flies with a Glo Brite underbody to bring out the shine in Edge Brite.
Here are some of the features that I especially like about Glo Brite floss.
1. Glo Brite is virtually fray-free. I use the term virtually instead of absolutely simply because i have only been able to use the material for weeks, not a full year. I do know that some flosses I have worked with are very sensitive to fraying from rough fingers and the occasional brush against a hook point, but I saw none of these tendencies with Glo Brite.
2. Glo Brite is indeed BRIGHT!. With something like 16 colors (at last count) this floss offers me the opportunity to light up my salmon and steelhead flies with just about any color I might fancy. This has not been the case with many other flosses and slim yarns, and I have sometimes found myself wanting this or that color in other products.
3. Glo Brite Floss is slim and tough at the same time. I have had the experience of working with various flosses that were strong, but were too thick to make a smooth pleasing Butt section or body, because there were lumps and bumps that I had difficulty avoiding. Glo Brite is VERY slender. Before Glo Brite, I found that the slimmest flosses required a very steady hand to adjust tension and avoid stress fraying. Glo Brite floss is so slender that I found myself doubling the material to make still slender butt sections and bodies were composed of several layers of the material,which allowed for very precise taper shaping.
4. Glo Brite handles very nicely on a bobbin. Simple and effective means of managing the material. It is thicker than a heavy fly tying thread, but it lays flat and just doesn't leave bulky lumps at tie-in points.
5. Overall, Marcos, send more, and send more colors when you do. Thanks.
Jay Nicholas
Atlantic Salmon flies should be a great home for Glo Brite Floss. I say this not as an Atlantic Salmon fly expert, but based on thinking that these tradition based flies often require unique floss colors and materials that will lay down smoothly without any hint of bulk. Seems like Glo Bite floss should do this job nicely.
Glo Brite Floss deserves a home in your fly tying supply and materials collection.
Not long ago, I found myself, no surprise, visiting with Marcos at the Hareline Dubbin Warehouse in Monroe, Oregon. Sometime during our conversation, Marcos reached into a cardboard box stuffed with a dizzying array of fly tying materials, rooted around for several moments, and pulled out a handful of spools, each filled with some sort of radiant material.
I peered at the spools, turned them on end and read - Glo Brite Floss with a hand written number on the label to indicate the color code. Marcos had my full attention. This was one of the new for Hareline's 2012 fly tying season catalog products. I am fond of a wide range of floss or floss like products, including Pearsall's Marabou Silk Floss and Uni Yarn, the latter really isn't floss, but you get the drift.
The character of a fly is greatly influenced by the nature of the materials used to construct it. Please excuse the obvious-ness of this statement, but it is so true that we sometimes overlook the implications. Take for example a familiar summer steelhead fly, the Mack's Canyon. If you have ever seen one of these flies tied in a traditional manner with a dull orange coarse orange yarn, and compared this to the same fly tied with Fl Orange Uni Yarn, the two flies are shockingly different. The same is true with a Green Butt Skunk tied with chartreuse chenille versus the same fly tied with Chartreuse STS Trilobal Dubbing.
This is not to say that one material is necessarily superior to another in its fish attraction power, although it may very well be, but it is clear that he flies look very different, and as creative products of each fly tyer, the choice of materials is crucial to the artistry each fly exhibits.
This is one reason why I get excited every time some new dubbing, chenille, thread, or floss becomes available. Another reason is that new dubbings, chenilles, and flosses may or may not offer improvements in the technical aspects of fly craftsmanship.
Short story long, I took my little handful of Glo Brite floss home and went to work testing it. Not immediately, mind you, but within three weeks I had applied Glo Brite to several different fly patterns and the results were most pleasing. I tied winter steelhead flies with a full long body of Glo Brite, summer steelhead flies with short slim butt sections of Glo Brite, and Chinook flies with a Glo Brite underbody to bring out the shine in Edge Brite.
Here are some of the features that I especially like about Glo Brite floss.
1. Glo Brite is virtually fray-free. I use the term virtually instead of absolutely simply because i have only been able to use the material for weeks, not a full year. I do know that some flosses I have worked with are very sensitive to fraying from rough fingers and the occasional brush against a hook point, but I saw none of these tendencies with Glo Brite.
2. Glo Brite is indeed BRIGHT!. With something like 16 colors (at last count) this floss offers me the opportunity to light up my salmon and steelhead flies with just about any color I might fancy. This has not been the case with many other flosses and slim yarns, and I have sometimes found myself wanting this or that color in other products.
3. Glo Brite Floss is slim and tough at the same time. I have had the experience of working with various flosses that were strong, but were too thick to make a smooth pleasing Butt section or body, because there were lumps and bumps that I had difficulty avoiding. Glo Brite is VERY slender. Before Glo Brite, I found that the slimmest flosses required a very steady hand to adjust tension and avoid stress fraying. Glo Brite floss is so slender that I found myself doubling the material to make still slender butt sections and bodies were composed of several layers of the material,which allowed for very precise taper shaping.
4. Glo Brite handles very nicely on a bobbin. Simple and effective means of managing the material. It is thicker than a heavy fly tying thread, but it lays flat and just doesn't leave bulky lumps at tie-in points.
5. Overall, Marcos, send more, and send more colors when you do. Thanks.
Jay Nicholas
Atlantic Salmon flies should be a great home for Glo Brite Floss. I say this not as an Atlantic Salmon fly expert, but based on thinking that these tradition based flies often require unique floss colors and materials that will lay down smoothly without any hint of bulk. Seems like Glo Bite floss should do this job nicely.
Glo Brite Floss deserves a home in your fly tying supply and materials collection.