Recently, as in the past year or so, I have decided I am done with buying flies, unless they are show flies or I might buy one to copy, if I don't know the pattern etc.
I lost my last store bought Kaufmann Stonefly and now tying up my own, but after following the recipes online, I am noticing that my stoneflies are no where near as fat or has a lot of density like the others.
Any tips from you veteran tyers out there, on how to build up the girth of the stonfly without closing down the gap? I tried using thick dubbing, but then the ribbing just dissappears in it. I then tried using lead wire, and triple wrapping lead wire into a taper (this method worked best so far I guess, but I am just worried about the gap.)
Any help on this woudl be greatly appreciated. Also... does anyone else use rubber legs on their big stones? Any other substitues that I could use or is suggested?
I'm going to be targeting steelies in a few days with these guys..
