In the late 1980s, when I was still trying to make money building boats, I got
a sack full of 2-lbs. per cubic foot closed-cell EVA (ethyl vinyl acetate) foam samples
from a "rubber products" wholesaler in Seattle. I think this is the same base resin as Evazote.
But Evazote is far denser and heavier.
I was thinking about making boat seat cushions that could also count as Coast Guard
approved flotation devices. A few months after I got the foam I threw in the towel
on boat building, and went back to building houses.
I still have the foam. It's about half the weight of any foam sold in fly tying stores.
Not surprisingly, it floats better too. I got dark gray, yellow, orange and white,
just the stuff the salesman found hanging around the warehouse. I didn't get grasshopper
tan. I wish I had. It's now over twenty years later and you still can't buy this stuff
from any retail source I know of. It must be out there somewhere. But I haven't found it yet.
I make grasshoppers and adult salmon flies with it. They float so well you can hang a weighted
nymph off the back end of the hopper and it still floats like a champion. If you mend the line
and sink the hopper, it pops back up a second or two later, even in fast water.
Maybe if I talk about it enough a fly tying materials dealer will finally notice what I'm saying:
lighter is better, and a lot lighter is a lot better.
The one trick I had to learn--in order to tie with ultra-lightweight foam--was not secure it
tightly to the hook. If you wrap thread tightly around the shank it cuts through the foam.
I tie it on loosely and then rely on CA glue to secure it to the hook.
These do end up as long-term durable flies. I regularly have hoppers (and adult salmon flies)
that last longer than a single season. Every once in a while a hopper body will come loose
and twist around the hook. If so I take it home and glue it up again.
You could tie this fly with regular store bought fly tying foam. It would look much the same.
But it wouldn't float nearly as well.
Here's an example of a Bobber Hopper <====
a sack full of 2-lbs. per cubic foot closed-cell EVA (ethyl vinyl acetate) foam samples
from a "rubber products" wholesaler in Seattle. I think this is the same base resin as Evazote.
But Evazote is far denser and heavier.
I was thinking about making boat seat cushions that could also count as Coast Guard
approved flotation devices. A few months after I got the foam I threw in the towel
on boat building, and went back to building houses.
I still have the foam. It's about half the weight of any foam sold in fly tying stores.
Not surprisingly, it floats better too. I got dark gray, yellow, orange and white,
just the stuff the salesman found hanging around the warehouse. I didn't get grasshopper
tan. I wish I had. It's now over twenty years later and you still can't buy this stuff
from any retail source I know of. It must be out there somewhere. But I haven't found it yet.
I make grasshoppers and adult salmon flies with it. They float so well you can hang a weighted
nymph off the back end of the hopper and it still floats like a champion. If you mend the line
and sink the hopper, it pops back up a second or two later, even in fast water.
Maybe if I talk about it enough a fly tying materials dealer will finally notice what I'm saying:
lighter is better, and a lot lighter is a lot better.
The one trick I had to learn--in order to tie with ultra-lightweight foam--was not secure it
tightly to the hook. If you wrap thread tightly around the shank it cuts through the foam.
I tie it on loosely and then rely on CA glue to secure it to the hook.
These do end up as long-term durable flies. I regularly have hoppers (and adult salmon flies)
that last longer than a single season. Every once in a while a hopper body will come loose
and twist around the hook. If so I take it home and glue it up again.
You could tie this fly with regular store bought fly tying foam. It would look much the same.
But it wouldn't float nearly as well.
Here's an example of a Bobber Hopper <====
