Wing N' Flash : Review

AtticaFish

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This is a new to me material and just got some in today. At first was very impressed with the colors, especially the Ice Blue Pearl! It throws several different pearl colors but predominantly in a purple'ish/blue'ish pearl. Very cool! I got 3 colors, top to bottom: Ice Blue Pearl, Flo Yellow Pearl, Flo Chartreuse. I will say that the Flo Chart comes off as more of a Gold than Treuse.........

View attachment 4

Took some individual pics also........

Ice Blue Pearl
View attachment 5

Flo Yellow Pearl
View attachment 6

Flo Chartreuse
View attachment 7

Tied a couple jigs with it as well. :D :jig:

View attachment 8

For the material review..... i give it a C+. It only gets the + because of how good it actually looks. Have not tested it in water yet to see the action, but it is so thin and whispy, i can only imagine it will have a decent amount of action as long as you do not over do it as a tail. I was sure hoping for better. It looks AWSOME, but is a pain to work with so far. Maybe it will get better with practice. Not so user friendly and makes for a lot of waste pieces that i could not use. I am covered in pearlish hair!!! So is the floor and my wastebasket. Would work excellent as an added flash color since it is co thin, but not so sure about the Wing/Tail potential.

Just my 2 pennies.

Man o man does the blue pearl LOOK great. I will practice more and hopefully get a little better at it. -: Russ
 

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AtticaFish

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.......should have mentioned........

As you can see it comes cinched down in a zip tie hank. I wasn't even all that sure how to use it once taking it out of the package. :blush: I separated out a chunk of fibers from the hank and cut it up close to the zip tie....... then used that as the butt end to tie on the hook shank. :huh: I actually left the butt end long so it went past the head of the jig then folded it back and trimmed it to get an even taper out the back of the tail. As i said, lots of waste in the trimming and even a bunch of the fibers falling out of the zipped hank......... but it sure looks good.
 

Pup

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First off, you always seem to tie nice-looking jigs...no matter the material used. :cool:

AtticaFish said:
For the material review..... i give it a C+. It only gets the + because of how good it actually looks. Have not tested it in water yet to see the action, but it is so thin and whispy, i can only imagine it will have a decent amount of action as long as you do not over do it as a tail. I was sure hoping for better. It looks AWSOME, but is a pain to work with so far. Maybe it will get better with practice. Not so user friendly and makes for a lot of waste pieces that i could not use. I am covered in pearlish hair!!! So is the floor and my wastebasket. Would work excellent as an added flash color since it is co thin, but not so sure about the Wing/Tail potential.

I'm thinking I've used two similar products. Spirit River's Lite Brite in "electric banana" and either "peacock" or black colors and a product called Optic Fiber distributed by Liberty Art of Mantua, OH and sold by the Flower Factory. They seem like better materials, to me, for adding color to ties and using another material to supply the action or used with a blade tied onto your jig. I believe that I tied a fly last year called a 'Spinner'd Minner' which used this type of material. The instructor who taught me that fly indicated that Lite Brite would supply flashy color to its body.

AtticaFish said:
.......should have mentioned........

As you can see it comes cinched down in a zip tie hank. I wasn't even all that sure how to use it once taking it out of the package. :blush: I separated out a chunk of fibers from the hank and cut it up close to the zip tie....... then used that as the butt end to tie on the hook shank. :huh: I actually left the butt end long so it went past the head of the jig then folded it back and trimmed it to get an even taper out the back of the tail. As i said, lots of waste in the trimming and even a bunch of the fibers falling out of the zipped hank......... but it sure looks good.

That's the way I was taught by my instructor to tie with this stuff. Lay it across, wrap, and then fold back and wrap to secure. Finally, trim off the excess to your liking.

Yes, there's waste, but...Good show old man (fake british accent here)! :D :cool: That's good tying!
 

Pepop

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the jigs look great Russ! I've never tied a jig using JUST flash but use as accent in most of my ties. You're right, the stuff really looks good in the finished product, but then, that has a lot to do with the tier! Good Job!!
 

toadfrog

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Looks good Russ . Do not let that stuff blow into your eyes . It will stick to your eye ball . Unlike hair or feathers and most other flash it has the potential to make small lacerations especially if you rub it . Plastic glitters will do the same thing . Found that out by turning on a fan sitting in front of my vise . That was my day for becoming a poster child for stupid .
 

Jig Man

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And don't turn the fan on with a full basket of feathers..Momma was NOT happy... Wasn't sure if you gonna dub it or use for accent. Good lookin stuff though.
 

creekychub

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I use this stuff to sparkle up my dubbing blends. Chop into 1/2" or less chunks and add to your dubbing mixer (mine is a coffee grinder). The material is known as "Angelina" fiber outside of the fishing world, another name is angel hair. This stuff can also be used to make "Flash Blend", when mixed with other synthetic hairs (kinky fiber, ep fiber....). Saltwater fly guys swear by that stuff... I, like Attica, don't really like using it by itself.
 

AtticaFish

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Thanks for the positive comments on the jigs..... will have to wait and see on the action it has. The look of the blue pearl is outstanding! The picture doesn't even look as good from my work monitor as it does from home.

Pup - There are a few materials that i tie in, fold over, and lock down so you use both the cut end and taper end out the back. There is a trick to getting a tapered tail out of that blunt end cut.......... if you bunch up the tail and then cut up into the tail parallel, it trims some fibers shorter and leaves some long. It thins out the tip of the tail.

creekychub - I like the idea of mixing it in with other synthetics. Bet it would mix in with wool pretty easily also. Hmm - ideas brewing. I can sure see the potential for adding flash to dubbing.

CrappieHappy - Didn't really notice it breaking, but it seemed to pull/stretch out if you grabbed an individual piece. It falls out of the zip tie fairly easy, stringy stuff all over the floor.

hookup - It has the look of flashaboo, but way thinner material. Very similar texture as frizzy human hair. I believe this is the stuff they use in Barbie Doll (in my daughters case, Monster High Dolls) hair to make it flashy. Super thin stuff.
 

hookup

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Good accent material. Mix some in with your tube tentacles, a zonker strip, maribou ... or let your imagination run wild.
 

Hawnjigs

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Mar 23, 2010
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Does look a lot like Angel Hair, and similarly messy to use. Because of the handling challenge I haven't used it much. Optimum flash tho I would prefer all the fibers to have the holo effect.
 

quivira kid

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Looks great! I use something similar to add flash to my Puglisi minnows. It is definitely not simple to work with, but the end result is very nice!
 
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