Ultra Wire is one of the hottest and widely used pieces of fly tying material. It has a wide variety of uses. Made most famous by John Barr on his wire body Copper John. Used to tie everything from the wire body on a brassie, to ribs on hares ears, and on streamers to hold material in place.
Tensile is another must for everyone’s fly tying box; it allows you to add just the right amount of flash to a fly’s wing case such as a Flash Back Pheasant Tail. It also can be used as ribs larger flies or bodies on streamers.
Fly Tying Threads
Just like everything in fly tying thread has its own sizing system. You will see 8/0, 70 Denier, GSP, Kevlar and even letters such as size A. This in all actuality is not the best way to actually compare sizes. When comparing different brands of thread do not use the 3/0, 6/0 or 8/0 designations. This numbering system is totally arbitrary and caries widely between the manufacturers. The only accurate way to compare sizes of thread is by denier* Denier is the thread industry’s standard for comparing sizes. Thank you Wapsi Fly for this great piece of information.
Side Note- Denier is the mass in grams of 9000 meters of thread. While thread sizes from company to company are close, no two are created equal when you’re comparing company to company.
Uni 3/0, 220 Denier Polyester-
Is a multi-filament thread used on larger flies, it has great strength and most at home on flies over size 12.
Uni 6/0, 135 Denier Polyester-
Made up of continuous polyester filaments that are slightly bonded. It’s not twisted, which allows the tier the ability to spin the thread so that it will lay almost completely flat on the hook shank.
Uni 8/0, 72 Denier Polyester-
Is made up of the same element as its big brother 6/0, yet smaller in diameter. Great thread for all of your smaller midges, nymphs and dries alike.
UTC 210, 210 Denier Nylon-
This thread with a breaking strength of about 3 lbs is a great choice for deer hair, larger streamers both fresh and saltwater patterns. Fly range is from 1/0 to 8 in most cases.
UTC 140, 140 Denier Nylon-
A great general purpose thread, it will cover all of your bases when it comes to general trout tying. It has a breaking strength of about 2 lbs and because of its make up; it makes this thread a great choice for spit dubbing technique. Great on flies from 6-14
UTC 70, 70 Denier Nylon-
Out of all the UTC threads in its family it lays the flattest, with the least amount of build up. With this in mind it makes great bodies on any pattern that calls for a thread body. It has a breaking strength of about 1 lb. It will tie your smallest of flies from 14-32!
This brings us to our specialty section of the thread department. In this section we will talk about GSP, Kevlar and Mono tying thread. We will start with GSP.
Ultra GSP, 50 Denier-
It has breaking strength of about 4 pounds, the smallest diameter of all GSP thread, makes a great thread choice of small deer hair dry flies.
Ultra GSP, 75 Denier-
With a breaking strength of about 6 lbs it is a great choice for medium sized deer hair patterns.
Ultra GSP, 100 Denier-
Approximate breaking strength of about 8 lbs makes this thread your general purpose deer and bucktail tyings best choice.
Ultra GSP 200 Denier-
With a breaking strength of nearly 16 lbs it’s the strongest in the GSP family. This size thread is usually reserved for the biggest deer hair and bucktail flies you can tie.
Kevlar, 200 Denier-
This is the strongest thread available. It’s made of the same material as bullet proof vests! It will anchor any material available.
Monofilament-
This thread is strong for its diameter, in smaller sizes it can be used as a rib on a scud pattern, medium sized which is close to 5X tippet material can be used to tie large baitfish patterns where you don’t want any thread to show through. The largest size can actually spin deer hair. All around great choice when it comes to stealth. Check out our video of the Flash N Slinky Baitfish to see it in action.
THREAD DENIER COMPARISON CHART |
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UTC |
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| Desc. | DENIER | MATERIAL |
|---|---|---|
| ULTRA THREAD GSP 50 | 50 | GEL SPUN POLYETHYLENE |
| ULTRA THREAD 70 | 70 | NYLON |
| ULTRA THREAD GSP 100 | 100 | GEL SPUN POLYETHYLENE |
| ULTRA THREAD 140 | 140 | NYLON |
| ULTRA THREAD GSP 200 | 200 | GEL SPUN POLYETHYLENE |
| ULTRA THREAD KEVLAR | 200 | KEVLAR |
| ULTRA THREAD 210 | 210 | NYLON |
| ULTRA THREAD 280 | 280 | NYLON |
UNI |
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| Desc. | DENIER | MATERIAL |
| UNI 17/0 | 40 | POLYESTER |
| UNI 8/0 | 72 | POLYESTER |
| UNI 6/0 | 135 | POLYESTER |
| UNI 3/0 | 180 | POLYESTER |
| UNI BIG FLY | 440 | POLYESTER |
| UNI CORD 12/0 | 50 | GEL SPUN POLYETHYLENE |
| UNI CORD 7/0 | 100 | GEL SPUN POLYETHYLENE |
DANVILLE |
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| Desc. | DENIER | MATERIAL |
| SPIDERWEB 18/0 | 30 | MONOFILAMENT |
| FLYMASTER 6/0 | 70 | NYLON |
| FLYMASTER 3/0 | 116 | NYLON |
| FLYMASTER PLUS | 210 | NYLON |
| FLAT WAXED NYLON | 210 | NYLON |