Worm on a String- Part 1

The long, purple, dangley-looking thing on the back of this fly is called a Mangum's Dragon Tail.  Well, to be technical, this is a cheap knock off, but we will get to that later.  Anyway, it is a lightweight material that has a lot of motion when it slides through the water.  It is great for tying big flies that you want to have a lot of action as well as a long profile.  I really dig them!  I wrote a post on these in the past and you can read it by clicking here. 

Technically, the "orginal dragon tail" came from a cheap child's toy.  After they gained in popularity, big fly tying got involved, made a comparable material and jacked up the price.  As many of us know, you can get tying materials on the cheap if you buy your materials from someone other than a fly tying company.  For example, you can buy foam at craft stores and pull dubbing off the family dog and you'll save some dough.  So in keeping with our cost saving ventures, I present to you a cheap alternative to dragon tails.  I give you Amazon's knock off- "worm on a string".

You might remember this toy.  It is a long, fluffy and flimsy material that has a couple of googly eyes on the front.  It is also attached to a thin piece of fishing line (ironic) which allows the user to move the "worm" but it looks like it is moving on its own.  Here's a tutorial and visual example if you need one.  

You can see that you have a lot of color options.  However, the draw back is that most of the time they come in assortments and you're going to get 6-8 colors, but you're not going to just get the once color that you might want.  On the other hand, you have some party favors that you can give away and I'm not kidding.  I plan on giving the "bad" colors out at my oldest son's birthday party in a week.

Here is the Orvis option on Amazon.  You can just search "dragon tail fly tying" and you'll find a few options.  I will say that the word on the street is that this product is more durable than the cheap version.  You can also buy the one color you want and not end up with a bunch of wacky colors you don't want.

Here's what I bought.  You can search "worm on a string" on amazon and get the same results I did.  I mainly bought them for the chartreuse, green, and purple ones.  I'll probably give the pink ones away.  I plan on following up on this post after I turn out a few flies.  I also need to test the out a little because I hear the material pretty much falls apart after a few fish.  For that reason, I am going to keep the patterns simple so they don't take much time to tie or replace.  If they are indeed pretty fragile, then I will just strip the hook with a razor and retie on the same hook with new materials.

Now it's time for a math lesson.  With the Orvis version, you can get 5 of these tails for $4 on the low end (less desirable colors) or for $8 (better colors).  That is $0.80 and $1.60 respectively.  On the other hand, you can buy the cheaper version for $8.19 and pay $6 in shipping for a total of $14.18.  You get 24 worms at $0.59 each.  You can save more if you buy in bulk, but I am saving between $0.20 and $1 per fly depending on colors.  Now if you don't want some of the colors in the assortment, then that would cause the cost per worm to increase as a result.  I'm not sure if the savings is worth the lack in quality, but if there isn't a difference then I might end up selling these on my Etsy store, I'm thinking it will be worth it!  Feel free to give this a try yourself, but I will be posting about this in the future and keeping you updated on my results.  I just might have to buy the Orvis version as well to see if there is a difference in quality and if so, how big of a difference.  Until then, pick some up and give them a shot.  I would love to hear from some folks and get their feedback.  Feel free to comment below or leave a comment on the Facbook page.