Pearsall's and Twisted Thread Dubbing

[Old Hat]

I have been tying these Blue Duns at the shows this year. I have been showing the twisted thread body and pre-made Clark's block method.






This particular one was done by the twisted thread technique that I use. When I do a split thread body, I actually noodle dub one half of the thread. I dub somewhat tightly near the hook (this will be the the rear of the fly) and less tightly or not at all further down the split thread (this will be the thorax the body). This way I can get a nice tapered shape without increasing the amount of dubbing from rear to front to ensure I retain translucent properties. Pearsall's is a 3-strand thread as most of you know. This actually gives more control to the tier. Untwisting the strands gives you the 3 strands. An uneven split. With the twisted technique you can adjust the amount of thread that shows through by which grouping of strands you dub. Dubbing one strand hides that strand and leaves two undubbed in the twist. This allows more thread to show through the dubbing. Dubbing two strands, leaving one undubbed, makes the dubbing more prominent within the twisted body.

The fly above was done by dubbing one of the 3 strands as described.

[swellcat]

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Pretty sophisticated. (I'm more at the stage of, "What is that miniscule, blurry object before me?" With time and something heftier than 2.00 diopters, who knows?)

The fly's a looker, too.
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[redsedge]

I must say that is a nice tie! Thank you for sharing the technique which seems to nicely replicate the effects achievable with a spinning block.

[Old Hat]

Thanks. I still like and use the dubbing block but find this preferable for the smaller flies and it adds just a little different effect.

[cassady]

A beautiful fly.

I particularly like the segmentation clearly evident near the bend.

[Ruard]

Very nice fly Carl, looks like I would see a wet one!!

greeting

Ruard

[letumgo]

Remarkable! Thanks for the tutorial and inspiration. I'll definitely play around with the dubbing method.

[Kelly L.]

Love it!!

[William Anderson]

Carl, again, your tying always shows such subtlety. The body achieved is just fantastic. I think it goes to show the inherent beauty of allowing the silk to become a significant part of the body's composition. You've managed a wonderful technique to get this. I really would approach my local streams with absolute confidence armed with only a box of this fly in a couple sizes. Just beautiful.

w

[gingerdun]

Carl,
I missed this post somehow.
You are ingenious. Nice variation for the dubbed body. Now I am even more sorry you're not going to be in W. Yellowstone to show us this in person.

L