As many fly tyers know, bulky flies do not do nearly as well as flies that give off the ILLUSION of bulk. Blane Chocklett, a world-renowned guide and fly designer, has a “secret ingredient” that he uses to achieve this effect. This ingredient is Chocklett’s Body Tubing, a synthetic tubing available in a variety of colors and sizes that can be wrapped around the hook shank to create a segmented body without adding unnecessary bulk to the pattern. This material can be used on any size pattern including trout patterns and even the biggest musky pattern where it can be wrapped as a head to push more water.
Uses: Fly Bodies, large or small. Also can be used to create heads on streamer patterns. Also can be good to create crab bodies on flex crabs.
Comparisons: This is a very unique material, there are some similarities to Bill’s Body Braid because the material can be wrapped to create a body, but the structure of the material and the way it ties are very different from Body Braid.
Example flies: Alphlexo Crab, Body Tubing BULKhead