Fly Tying Tuesday: Chenille
We often see people enter the store, spin a 360 and then watch as their eyes glaze over. There are lots of materials to choose from. We are always here to help, but in an effort to add clarity, we are going to bring you a post each Tuesday showcasing fly tying materials. This week’s feature is Polar Chenille, including UV Polar Chenille, and Fluorescent Polar Chenille.
Polar Chenille has become one of my favorite fly tying materials. While this product is not brand new, many anglers are still discovering how effective it can be and how easy it is to tie with. We have recently added to our collection of colors and styles for your fly tying pleasure (and mine).
Polar Chenille works for bodies, tails, accents, even entire flies and is available in UV and Fluorescent color options. The fibers undulate in the water like marabou, but are much stronger. It is very easy to wrap as a body material and also lends itself to furling*. The long translucent fibers on the standard Polar Chenille make it a great material for tying leeches and minnows. Claret, olive, olive/brown, yellow, amber, root beer, clear and of course black provide great options. Olive and tan are also excellent choices for bonefishy shrimp flies.
I’ve had tremendous success using UV Polar Chenille’s on my Alaska salmon flies. Hot Orange UV, Hot Pink UV and Chartreuse UV have been money for Kings and Silver Salmon along with a few steelhead. UV Polar Chenille in Olive/Copper, Silver, Gold and Pearl are protruding from many of my most successful trout flies.
The fluorescent Polar Chenille’s are a favorite for adding accent to salmon and steelhead flies as well as hot spots on saltwater patterns. Think Fl. Blue, Fl. Flame, Fl. Orange and Fl. Shell Pink.
Don’t ignore Polar Chenille for warm water flies. Oh yeah, we also have purple!
*My definition of furling related to tying flies is as follows: Twisting or winding a material and folding it over itself to create a uniform double strand.
Check out this old video of the Polar Express Minnow to see how you can create a minnow pattern by furling the tail with UV Polar Chenille. You can jump forward 90 seconds to get directly to the process.