Five pairs of mono eyes dipped in epoxy for just around 5,50€ or 7$. It sounds like a good business opportunity, but as a consumer it just pushes you to make your eyes your self. On a trip to Fyn this spring two Danes and an American-wanna-be-German made their own.
Epoxy eyes just add this little, nice detail to your shrimp, mysis and crab flies, but they are also ridiculous expensive and are only available in a few colors. You can vary size and colors and general expression by making them yourself and soon you will have eyes for every imaginable situation.
Basically, you have four ways of coloring your epoxy eyes.
1. When melting the nylon, let the flame get so close so the nylon almost starts burning and gets this dark agar brown color.
2. Melt the nylon. Add epoxy. Color the eye with either hobby paint or a pen.
By this method is is possible to customize the look of your fly. Why not having a discrete pair of gray eyes or maybe golden? Think about how we use different colored cones for tube flies to get a nice balanced look. Now we have the possibility not to have black, dominant eyes sticking out.
3. Color the nylon using a pen in grey, brown, rusty, black or what ever. Melt a nice little eye. Add the epoxy.
4. Melt the nylon. Mix the epoxy with a drop or two of hobby paint or varnish. Apply to the eyes and let them dry on a fly dryer using painters tape or even better a rubber band to hold the eyes.
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No matter what method you prefer, make a bunch of uniform eyes and keep them together wrapping a rubber band around the nylon sockets.
Make 2-300 hundred and you will enough for the season. I know, it sounds boring and it is! However, it is so nice to have it done and you can concentrate on the more fun part like tying a dozen of Kern's Perfect Leo Shrimp or Pattegrisen and get going.
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Great job, you can a
Great job, you can also omit many steps and go to a craft store-they have similar eyes made already and all you have to do is the coating step-I use Hard Head cement and the eyes are saltwater proof as well!
Good article, I have
Good article, I have done some in chartreuse and some in red, colour the epoxy, roll the nylon in it, wait until dry then put
a very small dab of black on the very end of the nylon, voila!! you have an eye with a pupil, and they look good especially
on bonefish flies. Neil.