Zulu rib proportions

[Robbie]

I was tying up a few standard Zulus yesterday, need to tie some more and possible some blue variants. When selecting a tinsel for ribbing it got me thinking about how this would affect the performance of the fly. Obviously this will vary form day to day and water to water, but I thought it might be worth finding out what other use/think.

So what sort of proportion of rib to body do you use? Or do you tie with varying sizes of rib to cover all the bases?

[IanR]

I use a wire rib on mine, the flies seem to last longer 

Ian.

[Robbie]

I took the flash from the tinsel to be an integral part of the pattern. Oval tinsel would give a more robust fly than flat tinsel, especially the plastic type tinsel. I think I have a spool of a metallic tinsel somewhere, I guess all tinsel a used to be metallic and this work make for a more robust fly.

[Lochan_load]

I like the oval tinsel as well and it ties in easier and neater than wire but it's nowhere near as durable, if I'm using wire I like it as fine as possible. Hard to find a fine enough one, even the ones branded as fine are too thick for me ( we've has this conversation before andy!)  i tend to keep my tails pretty stubby, not for any reason other than I like em that way, like your ghillie pal says, it probably doesn't matter  :lol:

[Highlander]

The original pattern asked for flat silver I believe. Moi I prefer a medium silver oval. Why? I do not know just do. Certainly more robust than flat. Only issue would be it might become a bit "lost" is you used a dubbed wool body but if floss, no issue there.
Four five turns depending on "shank" length is about right.

Tight Lines

[Robbie]

My initial question was more aimed at ration of rib to visible body i.e. 25/75, 50/50 or 75/25. number of turns does not quite describe the appearance if you get what I mean.

I am thinking Oval is probably a better option than flat tinsel, only slightly less flash but far more robust.

Thanks for the responses.

[Wildfisher]

Very difficult to quantify or prove, but I doubt it makes much difference other than the more likely the fish is to see the fly the more likely it is to  take it.  The style of fishing these flies were designed for involves casting and pulling back quite quickly, so I doubt the fish have much time to inspect the fly very closely.

[Robbie]

I was just interested in what others aim for when tying. To my eye 50/50 seems like over kill so I probably tie something closer to 40/60 rib to body. With the EOSS approaching it crossed my mind that something with a bit more flash may catch the eye of the tourists a bit more.

Too much time at a desk and not enough time fishing is a dangerous thing.