Foam flies vs. Natural flies, that’s the subject of today. This blog will cover primarily dry flies and the difference between foam body flies and natural flies. There are plenty of both of them in the industry today and they each have their place. Let’s dig in and go over a few scenarios where one outshines the other.
Advantages Of Foam Dry Flies
Buoyancy
When foam entered the fly tying world in the mid 80’s the game was changed. Foam flies are extremely buoyant and they have a lot of life in them. Compared to a natural fly pattern like a stimulator, foam patterns can catch a lot more fish with less fly manicuring.
Usually after 3-4 fish a natural fly will start to become waterlogged. People can always apply dry shake or more floatant but natural flies start to sink far before foam does. A foam dry fly like an Amy’s Ant or Chubby Chernobyl can take a beating and keep on floating, especially if used with dry shake/floatant.
Fish on foam flies (extended body salmon fly)
Foam flies can be tied to create a nice “lip” at the head of the fly to help with skating and popping or chugging. There are some great natural deer hair flies and flies with horizontal hackle that help them skate but nothing quite competes with foam. There have been times during a salmon fly hatch when a chugged foam fly was the absolute ticket. A foam dry fly with a big lip allows anglers to add serious pops and skates without jeopardizing buoyancy and this can be a big advantage based on conditions.
Water speed can affect the buoyancy of a fly drastically. If someone is fishing heavy choppy water, think fast water curling off a bank, a foam fly will stay afloat far longer than a natural fly. Not everyone has an excellent reach cast in which case mending is inevitable. A foam fly mended in heavy water stands a much greater chance of staying on the surface than a natural fly. Foam just gives people a larger room for error when fishing fast, heavy water.
Advantages Of Natural Flies
Appearance
Natural flies like a royal wulff, parachute adams, stimulator, catskill dun, adams, and griffiths gnat are hard to compete with when it comes to natural appearance. Flies that are tied with natural hairs and feathers almost always appear more realistic. I have found that finicky fish or fish eating in shallow calm water much prefer a natural dry fly. Along with a natural appearance, a natural dry will land much softer than a fly with foam tied into it. Even foam flies that are wrapped with a natural fiber will land with more of a “plunk” than an all natural fly.
Caught on a 18 renegade (natural)
Although natural flies won’t float as long as foam flies (generally), they seem to dance on the water like a real fly laying eggs or breaking out of its shuck. When guiding, if we come across a fish sipping mayflies in shallow water I will cut off our “run and gun” fly and tie on a natural fly. They land soft, float realistically, and usually the colors and profile don’t seem intrusive. Fish in shallow, calm water have a great view of the profile of a fly coming past them. If the profile of the fly is too bulky (which oftentimes foam flies are), it’s an easy pass for the fish. Natural flies tend to keep a realistic profile of the bugs they are imitating.
A Combo Of Both
Using Foam and Natural Materials
In some scenarios there are better flies to choose than others. Some people will prefer a big foam hopper while others will prefer to throw a natural para hopper. It’s all personal and some days foam will prevail while the next day the natural flies will take the cake.
Caught on a ant pattern with foam hot spot
Fly tiers have always been crafty folk and with no surprise, many tie foam into many natural flies. Parachute adams will be tied with a foam core for extra buoyancy, natural bodied hoppers will have a foam back so they sit perfectly in the water without sinking, some big foam salmon fly patterns will be all foam bodied with a natural hen hackle on the head to help for movement. Quite frankly, the combo can be deadly. Anglers get the best of both worlds in one fly.
Wrapping it up
When anglers hit the water with an open mind they seem to be more willing to adapt to the fish. If the big foam isn’t working, try going with a light natural pattern. If the stimulator is getting sunk while fishing a hard seam line, switch to a foam pattern that can take on heavier water. Be willing to make a change and have a few of each type of fly in the boxes you carry around. I try to have a few natural flies and a few foam flies for each insect I expect to imitate.
Hopefully this helps some of you on the water! As always, reach out to me via phone call or email for questions or to talk fishing! Thanks for stopping by!
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