Grays Tube Fly Adapter – Tying Tube Flies
Grays Tube Fly Adaptor is an inexpensive new tube fly tying tool to secure metal tubes, especially fine stainless steel Needle Tubes for tying tube flies
Many devices have been developed over the years to hold tubes of all shapes, sizes and materials securely for tying tube flies, including dedicated tube fly vices and assorted tube fly adaptors such as the HMH Starter Tube Tool (HMH Tube Fly Adapter). Plastic fly tying tubes may be simply mounted on pins or mandrels of various designs or on an adapted large hook of appropriate diameter. Metal tubes may also be similarly mounted on pins or needles but care must be taken to avoid damage to the fine plastic liners in the tubes and to avoid the tube spinning on the pin during the dressing of the tube fly.
The best solution for tying metal tubes in particular is to secure the tube in a dedicated tube fly vise or in a specially designed tube fly adaptor which may be fitted to a standard fly tying vice for the purpose, e.g. devices along the lines of the HMH tube adapter. Here we introduce Grays Tube Fly Adaptor, a new inexpensive, yet practical and versatile tube fly tying tool, very like the HMH tube tool. Our new adaptor is ideal for holding fine metal tubes for tying tube flies such as Needle Tube Flies.
Grays Tube Fly Adaptor
Grays Tube Fly Adaptor is a new tube fly tool recently introduced by Scottish flyshop Grays of Kilsyth . This affordable yet extremely functional tube fly tying tool, very similar in design and operation to the well established HMH Starter Tube Tool, is particularly useful for holding Grays fine stainless steel Needle Tubes, as shown in the photographs below.
The new tube fly adaptor is supplied by Grays of Kilsyth via our online fly shop, complete with twenty five Needle Tubes in various sizes, at a very affordable price, as shown below. It can be simply and quickly fitted to most standard fly tying vices when tube flies are to be dressed. Metal tubes can be securely clamped directly in the ring of Grays Tube Fly Adapter with no need for a pin or mandrel (while the three pins supplied with the adaptor can be used for securing plastic tubes of various lengths and diameters).
How to use Grays Tube Fly Adaptor
The tube fly adaptor is well suited to holding all kinds of metal tubes for dressing tube flies of varied diameter, length and pattern. It will hold traditional copper, brass and aluminium tubes such as the Veniard Slipstream tubes in diameters of up to three millimeters. It is particularly useful for holding fine stainless steel Needle Tubes – developed and manufactured by Grays of Kilsyth – with outside diameters as low as 1.5 mm, which some more traditional types of tube vice may be unable to accommodate.
Metal tubes such as the Needle Tube can be simply clamped directly into the ring of the adapter and held very securely as shown below, with no possibility of the tube slipping or spinning. Clamping the tube in this way also prevents the fine plastic tube liner being damaged, a distinct probability if the tube were to be mounted on a pin or needle for dressing, which should generally be avoided (see possible exception below for very short tubes).
Needle Tubes may be simply tied with no dressing over the shiny silver stainless steel body of the tube. I rarely add any kind of body dressing to my Needle Tube Flies, preferring a bare silver tube, especially on my sea trout night fishing tube flies. Omitting a body dressing allows very short tubes, in lengths down to about 10 mm, to be clamped directly in the ring of the adaptor.
Where a body dressing is required on a tube fly, longer metal tubes may be clamped in the ring of the adapter, as above, and dressed to within about 6 or 7 mm of the rear of the tube, those 6 or 7 mm providing a good space for the addition of a silicone or PVC hook link tube.
Dressing Very Short Tubes
When shorter tubes of 10mm or less are used, or where a body dressing is required on a short tube, the tube may be held in the adaptor with the aid of a pin or needle, as shown below, to facilitate the dressing. I would generally caution against inserting pins into the tube liner, as stated above, and great care must be taken not to damage the tube liner – either by using too thick a needle or by clamping the liner in the securing ring. It is always preferable to clamp metal tubes directly in the ring of the adapter, as shown in the top photograph above.
If this method is chosen for very short tubes, the method I would suggest is as follows:
1. First insert the needle or pin into the tube. The needle/pin diameter should be approximately equal to the internal diameter of the plastic tube liner. The needle diameter may be very slightly larger, as it need only be inserted a few millimetres into the tube, but not so large that it damages the plastic tube liner when inserted.
2. Loosen the clamping ring just sufficiently to allow the needle or pin to be inserted into the tube fly tool from the front end (the right hand side in the photograph below).
3. Pushing the ring downwards with the left forefinger, butt the tube liner firmly against the side of the clamping ring and tighten the clamp screw to secure the needle, being careful not to clamp any part of the tube liner inside the ring.
Thus secured, the tube may then be dressed to within a few millimeters of the rear of the tube, the undressed rear few millimeters providing a base for a short length of silicone or PVC hook link tubing.
How to Secure Short Tubes in Grays Tube Fly Adapter
The simple tube fly below was dressed on a 10mm stainless steel Needle Tube, outside diameter 1.5mm. The tube was clamped directly into the ring of the adaptor but this left very little room to apply the dressing.
It would have been easier to dress this simple tube fly if a needle of appropriate diameter had been employed with care to extend the area of the tube which could be dressed, as shown below.
Hard, rigid plastic tubes may be clamped directly in the adaptor in the same way as metal tubes, while longer or softer, flexible tubes are best secured in the adaptor with the aid of one of the pins supplied with the adaptor for the purpose, as shown below.
The tube fly adaptor is perfectly suited to the dressing of Grays fine stainless steel Needle Tubes and is supplied along with a selection of 20 Needle Tubes of 1.5mm outside diameter in lengths of 15mm, 20 mm, 25 mm, 30 mm and 35 mm (four of each length) on which the fly tyer may dress tube flies of various patterns and sizes, depending on his own fishing requirements.
Grays of Kilsyth Online Flyshop also supplies Needle Tubes for the fly tyer, boxed selections of Needle Tube Flies together with associated fly fishing and fly tying accessories.