Foam, what have I been missing?

[Michael Brady]

I just started tying with foam this week. Simply wonderful.
I have tied some simple beetles, interesting caddis, and more complicated stuff.
The simplest variation of one of my favorite flies was using orange foam as the egg on the back of an egg laying stonefly (before I was using crystal flash). Looks just as good (without the sparkle) and will sure float alot better.
And I just tied the most resembling the real thing hopper I have ever tied. I cant get enough of the Foam!

[cabezon]

I agree; it's simply great stuff for the abdomen of hoppers and stoneflies. If you cut it into strips, you can wind it on and create a nice segmented appearance. Add a spun deerhair head (hopper) or dubbing and hackle (stonefly) and you have a reasonable facsimile of the real thing. By perusing a few craft stores, you can find a wide range of colors and two thicknesses.

What style of caddis are you using foam for? I've used it for the abdomen of October caddis, but I don't use it as much on smaller patterns.

Steve

[Ringlee]

I use foam on all my big dries for Salmon, Rainbows and Pike. It is pretty durable stuff. Another pattern that I use foam on is a EHC variant with foam. It never sinks. Great looking fly. I will see if I have those boxes here and post a picture.
Chris

[sixfinger]

I use it sometimes for parachute posts or I put a little patch just behind the top of a bullet head for visibility and a little extra floatation. I'll have to try cutting it into strips and wraping it. Sounds interesting.