Mono Eyes

[Trapper]

Can anyone tell me the trick to forming nice round mono eyes for crab patterns? I have lots of eyes that look more like tadpoles :mad:

[fleshfly]

tadpole? are using nice heavy mono like the "brown Maxima" I guess jsut with practice it will come. I think if you are reforemd Pyro Addict the learning curve is shorter. Burn first, then tie in place. Leave length to meet your pattern. Sometime it is helpful to spread them a bit...

[Slinger]

Here`s a tip a friend shared with me. go to any dollar store and buy a hair brush with the individual nylon bristles with the little knob on the end. You can then pluck each bristle out and use either end for eyes. For $2 you end up with a couple of hundred perfect eyes, no burning , no mess, just pluck and tie.
Slinger

[zippy]

use a butane lighter not a bic but one where the flame shoots out like a cutting torch. Then put the mono near the flame at the middle of the flame till it starts to melt.
If you still are having a problem hold the lighter so the flame is horizontal and the mono is pointing strait up and move it toward the flame from the bottom --126-3-

[MKDeceiver]

Mono eye summary:

-Use heavy mono 30-50lb if you can.

-Make the eyes before you tie on the fly so you can play with them a little bit.

-Melt the mono, let cool, then melt again. That helps grow the size.

-Don't be afraid to use your index finger and thumb to shape the eye. Just be carefull not to let the mono stick to your fingers and burn them!

-To get them super big. After you do the above. Dip the end of the eye in black paint from the flyshop.

*To be more efficient, If your tying a pattern that requires mono eyes, calculate how many flies you want to make and make all the mono eye sets prior to assembling the fly. This will help 2 fold. 1st it will make your tying more efficient. 2nd your mono eye learning curve will go up dramatically because your making them one after the other...

[zimmjas]

This was posted by Striblue a few years ago. This works well for me:

"Yes..it is very easy.. I would use mono from a spool. The part of the flame does not mean anything.. ..take a long piece of mono..about 6 or 7 inches..so you can get two eyes from the ends. Hold the flame briefly at the mono..mono pointed down into the flame until it catches on fire...you will see it catch with a small flame ..let it burn up for about 2 or 3 seconds..blow out.... keep it held down perpendicular to get a straight set...if you want the eye balls a bit crooked so the pop up a bit for a crab pattern ..turn the mono horizotal.. you should get a fairly round eye..but to get a perfect ball.. you should either color the brownish color resulting from the flame with black paint or magic marker..then dip in epoxy moving the mono sprig around in your hands to get the perfect ball. hope that helps..you will need to do this a couple times to get it down.

[Trapper]

Thanks everyone I will try some of these methods!

[crazygoof]

Here`s a tip a friend shared with me. go to any dollar store and buy a hair brush with the individual nylon bristles with the little knob on the end. You can then pluck each bristle out and use either end for eyes. For $2 you end up with a couple of hundred perfect eyes, no burning , no mess, just pluck and tie.
Slinger
Gonna have to try that one.

[Mark Dougherty]

Spirit River makes eyes that will slide over the mono. The small peacock size works best for me, but I have had success with the medium pink (yes pink).
First melt the mono.....slide the peacock "eye" down the mono.....add a small
drop of crazy glue, zap-a-gap or whatever to the burnt mono.....let dry. The small peacock eyes have a black/peacock herl shimmer to them....check yer local fly shop....or contact any decent shop for a special order.....most have Spirit River catalogs...of PM me and I'll send ya a few to try.

[hookup]

go to a sewing section one jo-ann store and look for straight pin's with a round head
if they don't black just use a marker to change the color.