One of the horrors of being thoroughly enamored of a hobby is the fits of giddy that result when something attempted actually lives up to the original idea, versus flaming out midway through the development process.
My ambition was to develop a dubbing that mimicked the superfine aquatic mammal fur we’ve reserved for dry flies, yet was cheap and plentiful, took dyes well, was easy to mix and blend, and could replace the increasingly costly fur bearers like mink and otter.
Synthetics have become dominant in many areas of fly tying, yet have never lasted long in the dry fly space. Most are borrowed from aerospace or the carpet industry and have fibers too coarse for tiny fly bodies.
The fly tying market is tiny relative to carpets, which is why we’ve always adapted other items versus entreating DuPont or 3M to make something to fill the void. We dutifully salvage what looks promising, but most fibers made for upholstery, yarn, or car interiors, are useful for nymphs and streamers, not for gossamer or tiny.
Periodically some neo-prophet makes a wild claim that vaults a product into the limelight, like polypropylene, but nothing made by Man has ever lasted long enough to dominate muskrat or beaver, or any of Mother Nature’s aquatic fur bearers.
Dry fly bodies need extra fine materials that allow the body to be dubbed thinly to avoid absorbing too much water. Tiny amounts of fur can be air dried with a couple of false casts – too much fur is a sodden lump that we curse with every ungraceful landing.
With all the yarns and oddities I’ve pawed through over the last decade I managed to find a material heretofore unknown in the fly tying lexicon, whose fibers rival the thin filaments of aquatic mammals, absorbs dyes like a Black Hole, and is cheap as dirt – other than requiring a great deal of my labor to render it from its found form to dubbing.
Here’s the best part … the damn stuff floats as it’s naturally buoyant, something the aquatic fur bearers can only gnash teeth over …
Queue giddy.
As a means of apology for the excesses of yesterday’s post, if you email me your mailing address I’ll toss a couple of useful colors into an envelope allowing you to fiddle with it, after which you can call me an outright lying SOB, so thoroughly wrapped up in his own magnificence as to have lost sight with reality.
I will not use these addresses for any other purpose. unless you say you don’t like the material – then I’ll sign you up for every porn site containing pygmies and grape Jell-O …
I have about four pounds of test colors, most being initial attempts at the Big Three; olive, pale olive, and gray. I have plenty of rust, some browns, a bit of Trout Underground Scarlet (which has been reserved by his Bleeding Lordship), and plenty of PMD look-a-likes.
I don’t mind sharing, and wouldn’t mind a bit of feedback either.
When I get to the process of picking final colors I will engage readers that want to take part in that process, just as I did with the Free Range Nymph products.
My mailing address is on the “About” link at the top of the page. I don’t ever dare type it in because of all the page crawling spiders that harvest email addresses for spammers.
Request made and another sixth finger order placed. Thanks
Keith,
Please send me a sample of the material.
Thanks,
Richard Spott
(Address Removed by KB)
Entreaty sent along with some shameless sucking-up
Shameless sucking up always tends to lend wings to the feet of Mr Postman, not sure why …
Me? I’m immune to all that … I think.
Scarlet? Scarlet?! I keep telling you — fire engine red for the Beetle Bugs…
This is just another way to drive my blood pressure up, I know it…
Are those dead puppies in that photo?
Dammit Joe, you know that the fish killing qualities are double if I keep it a mystery!
Now the damn stuff won’t work AND I get a PETA protest group occupying the Little Stinking.
If ya gets one like in London, England, invite us over!!!
Seriously, you are one persistent dude. Not just because the Nymph Dub kicks A, either. It’s about all those pots, pans and dishes not to mention the kitchen sink and the relationship.
Keep on cooking the soup!
Holy bageebaz, I don’t understand, am I getting dead puppies in the mail? And that sick SOB over at the TU has reserved all the bloody ones.
Rich, how else do you think he keeps Wally the Wonderdog in line? “shape up dog, or you too could end up as dubbing. . .”
Forget the PMD, Pale Olive, and Rust. Those are all well and good in the box you show the huddled masses.
Everyone in the know understands that the colors you keep in the empty Cope can are things like Kibble, Velveeta, and Canned Corn.
Yes, Plz.
Looking forward to using it.
Loved the Midge thingy.
You have my address from earlier trades.
As a special favor to some of us, would you also include with the fur packets, the address of that porn site with the pygmies and grape jello ?
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i feel like i’m supposed to sing this stuff’s praises somewhere, but i’ve been broken alot so damned if i know where.
maybe this is better than knowhere?
works like a champ. dubs painfully easiliy, even with dry winter fingers. floats well. colour fast.
hopefully spring sees me in operating condition and able to use this better, but so far its all good.
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I have never tied many small dry flies as the old eyes just have trouble seeing much below a 16 but this stuff has made my size 18 to 20 a real breeze…along with cheater glasses under my trifocals and a large magnifying lens!
Like the nymph dubbing, it only takes a tiny bit to get it just right. Using some of the thousands of vintage Mustad hooks I bought on EBAY (after the tip I received right here, small ADAMS, BWO’s,ANTS and Mosquitos are piling up in my restock boxe. I have tried it with dubbing loops as well and it makes a fly that almost bounces off the water and dries in the air with one false cast. I can use it without dubbing wax or wetting my fingers and it stays on the #14 thread I use for the small stuff.
The best part is the confidence regained in the small dries that are catching fish on the SOCAL locals and in the Eastern Sierra. Good Stuff!