Minimalistic sand eel

[gstours]

Here's a technique that you may not have been able to use a decade ago?
  Most of the time I use too much of everything.   Butt to tie up a fly with out thread now might be pretty easy?       So sea what you think 🧐

[jurelometer]

Fun stuff.  Welded flies are starting to become a thing now. I hated UV resin at first, but with the better products now, and a bit of practice, I find myself using the stuff lots more.  Flies like the one in the video are a good candidate for welding.   

Here is what I have learned.

1.  Really nice for getting feathers to lay just how you want them. I am the king of crooked wings

2.  The UV stuff is a coating, not an adhesive.  Anywhere that the UV light does not reach, doesn't  cure.  So it doesn't work if you are using lots of material, or attaching an eye, etc.

3. I HATE mono tying thread.   It has to be non-stretchy to enable holding onto the material, so it breaks easily. It does not grab onto the shank well, so the whole fly can spin around the hook.  There must be a way to use the stuff to tie a durable fly, but I haven't figured it out. 

4.  The UV resins don't stick to the hooks that well.  I suggest a bed of some good old flat spun nylon thread.  A bit of head cement to anchor the bed, and you are ready to weld the rest with UV resin. Weld at each step to ensure all the resin gets hardened.

5. Resin will wick through some materials, especially synthetics.  If your material covers some of the gape, it is easy to to ruin a fly by closing off the gape with resin hardened material.   With epoxy heads, we just had to be extra careful, but with the UV stuff, you can just turn the fly upside down and do a little resin at a time.

-J

[gstours]

Thanks Dave for sharing your knowledge with these synthetic new age products.
   I do agree on the Facts that the tyier can easily use the uv epoxy to excess and ruin the new fly.   It's like anything where you need experience to look backwards and you can get there without some screw ups.   
  I mostly agree with your rant of mono thread 🧵, butt it has its place and a lot of folks like it.   It is almost invisible under the epoxys and maybe this is it's strong point?
  There's another clip in my stickies that needs to follow this as we stay on the minimal topic.    You will have a good time with it......