Thursday, November 02, 2006

Do we really need to cement the head of a small fly?

One of the gurus at my local fishing club gave me an advice a few years back and I have been following it ever since. While I was cementing the head of my fly, he commented (rather gently) about the usefulness of head cementing. When small flies are of concern, why should we cement the head? The logic says that the fly will last longer. But will it? I mean that you put a good finish there and that's it.

"We say no to head cement!"
From Fly-patterns

I haven't added lacquer to my flies (apart from streamers and big nymphs) since. My flies don't untie themselves any more than they did before. To my experience, there is no need to cement the head of a small fly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I stopped cementing a long time ago (about the same time I started using Griffiths 14/0 thread).

I haven't missed. It's always the quill body or hackle that goes first...

opax said...

Haven't used Griffiths thread although I have heard a lot of good things about it. I should give it a try.