Using Glue & Paint in Fly Tying

Video Transcript

"ALVIN DEDEUX: Okay, usually the last thing you'll do is either put glue or paint on your fly, whether you're putting glue on the thread wraps at the very end to keep them from coming unraveled or you're actually using some paint to paint the fly if you're using a hard-bodied fly that actually gets painted or sometimes, you might just paint the thread. There's a lot of different--there's glues and paints made specifically for fly fishing. A lot of people will just use regular nail polish or model paint. Yeah, you just need something that's going to be waterproof and something that's fairly thin. You don't want a really thick glue especially if you're using something to finish off the thread. The glue for the head of the fly, you want it to be fairly thin, so that it actually penetrates the thread and sort of locks it on the hook. So you don't want anything that's really thick or blobby. The same thing with your paint, you want something that fairly thin and preferably something pretty quick drying. But one exception being maybe an epoxy, a two-part epoxy that you put on, and it will take a little bit longer to dry but it will provide a nice hard coating for the fly whether it's the body of the fly or the head that you built up with thread. But glues and paints, lots of different applications, but definitely something you'll want to have for tying your flies."