FLYMPH FORUM

Thanks, gents...that gives me a lot of ideas for different color combinations (not to mention an excuse to order new materials. )

"remove the lady first!"

This sounds fun, but I think I am going to have trouble with this step.

letumgo wrote:"remove the lady first!"

This sounds fun, but I think I am going to have trouble with this step.

You might find some empty ones? One can always ask as well! You only have to remove the lady if there actually is one in the stockings. Another little tip, don't take a pair of tights or stockings etc belonging to your wife, girlfriend, significant other etc, and use them without permission. When they do find out and you tell them you have been blending tups hair ( Yes, of course they want to know what it is and where it came from!), they tend to get a bit agitated. Also, silk stockings work well for this, and indeed seem appropriate, but on no account should they be used for their original purpose after such use. I have it on excellent authority that hair shirts are a veritable blessing in comparison!

Also, for many years rumours circulated that the hair from certain parts of raven haired Andalusian virgins was the best dubbing one could possibly have for a number of things.

Over the years I have gone to considerable lengths to obtain various materials, and I was blessed with a very understanding wife, but even I thought it prudent to draw the line at some things!

TL
MC

Wise words, Mike! Thanks for making me laugh. Nice to have you back.

My pleasure. One final tip, do not be tempted to try and accelerate the drying process of the dubbing with a hair dryer in your bathroom etc. The resulting "hair storm" is indescribable and will probably get you into more trouble than the Andalusian virgins. Not to mention the smell, you wouldn't believe the stink when this stuff gets into a hair dryer!

TL
MC

Mike Connor, Howdy;

Words of wisdom gained from experience shall not be rejected from my ears.
Even the squirrel that runs around inside my head has learned to pay attention.

hank

Mike Connor wrote:The grey shades can substitute for various things like mole etc. A mix of brown red and grey gives a good water rat substitute ( which mole is not!), and there are other possibilities. Very easy to use, and as good or better than various animal dubbings for quite a few things.
TL
MC

This is like doing a substitute for DoDo wings, I have never seen a waterrat or its fur and unlikely to ever do so. The Waterhen Bloa was the first spider I attempted to fish and in trying to pay homage to the original recipie and the fact the large olives of spring do have a strong brown flavour I used natural mole with a pinch of fiery brown mole in the dubbing mix.

In the above mix that you mention Mike can u recall what proportions would yield a good substitute for ratty.

Have you used silk mixed with say hares ear for any applications ?.

I experimented a little earlier in the year with some orange/red/yellow silk with hares ear to provide some additional subtle coloration to the hare mix but cannot say if the silk provides any advantage over using a wee pinch of dyed hare. I can see that touch dubbing onto tight silk body allows the dubbed silk to perform a function in translucence and possibly livelyness - indeed a function that many have sought to achieve with CDC, but in a dubbing mix that subtle behaviour of the thin silk would be overpowered by the thicker hares ear fibres.

have a look here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Water_Vole

It's not just the colour of the fur, it's extremely fine textured. Silk is for this reason alone a pretty good substitute.

Also, the actual colour of the dubbing depends on where you take the fur from the pelt. For the mix for a "waterhen bloa" use primarily dark brown or preferably two shades of brown, mixed with grey ( mole or hare underfur) and a tiny pinch of red. This works a lot better than mole by itself.

The problem with mixing some dubbings is their different properties and textures. You can use soft fur or silk for instance to "bind" stiff curly dubbing or dubbing of various textures for "noodle" or "twist" dubbing, but this wont work for touch dubbing, the stiff fibres will merely fall off!

Yes, I have used silk and fine wool mixed with hare for various things, very successfully too. Here's an example;

The Pink Squirrel
Hook: #12 Drennan carbon specimen ( You may use any hook of course, but I prefer straight eyed hooks for spiders).
Body: Yellow silk ( or you can use any 6/0 multi-strand thread), dubbed with a mix of 6 pinches of light hare underfur, mixed with 1 pinch of fine red ( pure) wool or silk and the last third dubbed with dark underfur.
Hackle: Squirrel body guard hair in a split thread technique.



Once you know what you are aiming for you can produce lots of nice mixtures appropriate to whatever you are imitating. You have to experiment a bit and especially with textures, not just colours. At one time the right dubbing, how to prepare and use it on particular flies was considered of absolutely major importance by most dressers, but is nowadays often ignored.

TL
MC

Gary LaFontaine was the only "modern" fly dresser I knew who used this technique extensively. It was largely more or less unknown until he popularised it. I have a video from him somewhere which shows him using it. He also produced a range of "touch" dubbing;

http://www.thebookmailer.com/Supplies/TouchDubbing.html

My camera has decided to strike, but here are some demos;

http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/tying/touch-dubbing/

http://www.swedneckflyfishing.com/touch ... _steps.htm

http://swittersb.wordpress.com/2010/05/ ... ll-do-you/

Another method which produces a completely different effect;

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?showtopic=42399#

For the "best" effect on spiders for instance you should not touch the dubbing at alll after you have touched it to the thread.

A PDF http://www.swedneckflyfishing.com/pdf/t ... _print.pdf

TL
MC