Low Resolution (click) | | Boomerang Flies (aka Channel Flies) are a tube flies, where the tube
itself is handmade from super glue and thread wraps,
using a thin length TEFLON tubing as temporary form.
This makes it possible to make dry fly tube flies.
Why would you do that? Channel flies float better,
especially for larger dry flies, like grasshoppers
and adult salmon flies. With channel flies the hook size
is independent of the fly size, so you are free to build large
hoppers and stoneflies with smaller, lighter hooks. Oddly,
even small dry fly channel flies float better. Why that is
I can't say. But the proof is in the floating.
Even more important than the floating, however, is the boomerang
effect. When you snag the hook and break the line, the fly falls
to water, with no hook attached, and floats back down to your
hand like a miniature labrador retriever. With Boomerang hoppers
you can fish all summer long on a half a dozen flies.
Once the fly is complete, the TEFLON tubing is removed.
The hard plastic channel left on the underside of the fly
becomes a hard stout tube for threading the leader.
- Channel flies are tube flies built a new technique.
- Dry flies (built this way) float better,
because the hook can be smaller, and because the hook
dangles below the surface tension, rather than in it.
- When you snag a hook and break off, you lose the hook,
but the fly itself floats back down stream like an
obedient homeing pigeon.
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Boomerang Caddis/
Boomerang Hopper/
Pteronarcys Californica/