Dubbing & fur mixes

[brandon4455]

just thought id start a thread to see what everyone is mixing up for their patterns? ive been using a dark shade rainbow scud dub mixed with peacock ice dub for my attractors, and a caddis pupa like pattern. it's pretty fun to experiment with different colors and textures. does anyone have anything they would like to add? not asking for your secret recipie or anything just curious to see what different mixtures work best and what i can add to my arsenal of experiments.




Brandon

 

[Gunga]

well im still waiting for my tying kit to ship in but i went out to river city fly shop today and bought about 50$ worth of materials. im going to try to make a pheasant tail with teal flash back. But i did watch my uncle tonight make a wooly bugger out of bright green marabo and bright yellow rabbit fur strip.

 

[GungasUncle]

For natural furs - it's hard to beat hare fur, dyed or natural. I don't tend to mix different furs together - but I will mix colors of a like material together. I tend to use a lot of synthetic dubbing for my dry flies and dubbed body nymphs, though I've got the better part of a hare's mask I'm still working through. The guard hairs and the under fur is great, buggy stuff. I do like using different materials layered or stacked upon one another though. And peacock herl makes great ribbing, especially if you spin the peacock with fine silver or gold wire first.

 

[FlyBum]

Well, there are soooooooo many options to work with that will make for some really good dubbing mixes. Get a cheap coffee grinder and have fun. (Don't use your roommates, he'll get pissed) You can also mix by pulling through your fingers, but once you get something that really works for you make some "large" batches. Don't forget to write down how much of each that goes into it.

Another thing to do is dub two contrasting colors one after the other to help suggest segmentation. It's a little tricky but can provide some interesting challenges.

 

[GungasUncle]

Good call on the contrasting colors. I like doing this for nymphs and dubbed buggers. Another neat trick- albeit an involved one - is to spin your dubbing into two loops side by side, then spin both dubbing ropes together with a piece of fine wire. You can also accomplish something similar visually by layering the dubbing, light & dark in your dubbing loop, before spinning it together with the wire. You wind up with a cool dubbing braid that is varigated and super strong.

 

[FlyBum]

Good call on the contrasting colors. I like doing this for nymphs and dubbed buggers. Another neat trick- albeit an involved one - is to spin your dubbing into two loops side by side, then spin both dubbing ropes together with a piece of fine wire. You can also accomplish something similar visually by layering the dubbing, light & dark in your dubbing loop, before spinning it together with the wire. You wind up with a cool dubbing braid that is varigated and super strong.

That's a pretty neat chenille type dubbing rope. I usually don't get that involved with too many dubbing techniques. I like to keep it a bit more simple, as lately I find myself wanting to crank out just enough for the next weekend. Guess getting a more comfy chair would help the fatigue at the tying bench.

 

[GungasUncle]

I picked up the technique from John Shewey's "Steelhead Flies" - I tied up a bunch of wet flies using a floss/wire rope, and they turned out neat. Then I did multiple colors of floss with wire for a candy cane patterned body. Then i started experimenting with the same thing, but with twisted dubbing loops. You get some really buggy, but really durable bodies that way. The down side is it's more complicated and time intensive, but you can crank out some cool flies doing it.

 

[eggs]

for steelhead flies and a lot of other flies... some of Pop-A-Top Yarn has a lot of natural colors and it is kinda wool like an pulls apart and dubs great!

I also like mixing hares dubing with ice dubbing to either contrast or match to give the body some sparkle.

I never thougth about using 2 or 3 colors of floss twisted for a steelhead body.. hmmmm

 

[brandon4455]

for steelhead flies and a lot of other flies... some of Pop-A-Top Yarn has a lot of natural colors and it is kinda wool like an pulls apart and dubs great!

I also like mixing hares dubing with ice dubbing to either contrast or match to give the body some sparkle.

I never thougth about using 2 or 3 colors of floss twisted for a steelhead body.. hmmmm

i have a few colors of pop a top i won in that contest and iv tied a few nymphs. mixing two earthtone colors together like browns ,olives and stuff like that makes excellent nymph bodies. love the pop a top.

 

[Sinkline]

Brandon, I mix stuff together sometimes. Usually just to get the shade I want it, or somtimes to get the effect I want (some long strand, some short strand).


Randy