Question: "Sealing" 2 mm craft foam?

[OldBaldGuy]

In Frosch's Fishing Forum thread about his latest big bluegills, vrentropy responded to my comment about using crease flies:

One thing about the crease flies OBG, if you didn't seal the foam when glueing it to the hook, then given a bit of time in the water (or better yet a couple of hits) it will soak up enough water to become just slightly bouyant. Then it will ride just under the surface and even dive down a bit with each strip. It really looks like a wounded minnow then. I'd really like to nail some topwater bass on them this year...

Don, hugefish_80 and I were talking about that yesterday, and neither of us was sure what you meant by "sealing" the foam. Are you just painting the exposed surface with Sally Hanson? What are the alternatives?

BTW, both of the small bass I caught that evening took the crease flies off the surface (or very near the surface). A big version of the crease fly, possibly one with a trailer hook in the skirt, might be terrific for larger bass (for those who intentionally fish for those sorts of things ).

[vrentropy]

I don't know how well you work with CA glue, but the loctite with a brush that I currently have is pretty runny. I 'coat the hook shank' when I am adding the foam to the crease fly. There is always too much. I don't know if I have ever tied one without glueing my fingers to the foam at least and to each other, the foam, the feathers and the hook at the worst.

When there is really too much enough of the foam gets coated that it COULD seal the foam. If you search and read up on the crease flies, many of the people who tie them for ocean fish DO coat the foam with epoxy so they do not get beat up as quickly.

Personally, unless I get too much glue on there, I don't seal it completely ever, but it might happen. The more places that are coated with glue or sally or whatever is going to slow the absorption of the water, so they will sink slower, or not at all, or unevenly.

Does that muddy the stream of thought enough for ya?

[OldBaldGuy]

Gu my finers gthr wh suprgu? Nver!