{"id":7949,"date":"2011-09-25T19:07:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T02:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/2011\/09\/25\/how-to-solve-some-of-the-ills-of-synthetic-dubbing-perhaps-even-speed-your-fly-tying\/"},"modified":"2015-02-01T06:54:01","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T13:54:01","slug":"how-to-solve-some-of-the-ills-of-synthetic-dubbing-perhaps-even-speed-your-fly-tying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/2011\/09\/25\/how-to-solve-some-of-the-ills-of-synthetic-dubbing-perhaps-even-speed-your-fly-tying\/","title":{"rendered":"How to solve some of the ills of synthetic dubbing, perhaps even speed your fly tying"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the only part of the fly<\/strong> that works entirely against you, whose real value is the spot of color it leaves when closing the gap between tail and wing. It absorbs water, resists drying, and if ever there was a case for \u201cless is more\u201d this is it.<\/p>\n

Dry fly dubbing is comparatively humdrum when compared to the litany of clever things that can be incorporated into nymph dubbing. We don\u2019t get to play with special effects, loft or spike, and the only texture that\u2019s helpful is soft and cloying, aiding us in wrapping it around thread.<\/p>\n

As the fly derives so little benefit from its presence, other than the hint of color, and as it\u2019s more hindrance than asset, we should apply a bit more science to its selection than merely whether it makes a durable rug yarn.<\/p>\n

As beginners we were introduced to fly tying with the natural furs available from Mother Nature. We tried everything from cheap rabbit to rarified mink, and while we could appreciate the qualities we were told to look for, none of the shops carried them in anything other than natural.<\/p>\n

There might have been three or four colors of dyed Hare\u2019s Mask, but everything else on the shelves were the miniscule packets of synthetic dander \u2013 not the aquatic mammals mentioned in every book about dry flies written in the last half century.<\/p>\n

Shops don\u2019t dye materials anymore, and jobbers don\u2019t dye real fur \u2013 as synthetic fiber is sold for pennies to the pound \u2013 and it\u2019s shiny, which appears to be the only requirement that matters much. Real fur is expensive, has to be cut, attracts moths, and doesn\u2019t come in pink \u2026<\/p>\n

When closing that gap between tail and wing, \u201cshiny\u201d doesn\u2019t make our radar much, floatation does, as will fineness of fiber, flue length, texture, and color. It\u2019s the second most common reason for fly frustration, either grabbing too much<\/a>, or reaching for something ill suited to make a delicate dry fly body.<\/p>\n

Floatation being the most desirable given our fly is cast and fished on the surface. Fineness of fiber results in a soft texture that\u2019s easy to apply to thread, and fiber length allows us to plan how big an area of a \u201cloaded\u201d thread we\u2019ll make – sizing the fur to the hook shank, ensuring we\u2019re not needlessly causing ourselves grief when tying smaller flies.<\/p>\n

Given that a #16 seems to be the most common size of dry fly on my waters, as it was the most common size ordered during my commercial tying days, sizing dry fly dubbing for a #16 would make my tying much easier.<\/p>\n

That extra bit of tearing or trimming could consume 20-30 seconds, especially if you\u2019re looking for scissors, making it one of many shortcuts that could trim minutes off a fly, enhancing whatever miniscule profits are to be had from commercial tying.<\/p>\n

\u201cSizing\u201d the dry fly dubbing to the hook shank is done by testing different fiber lengths, and determining which length yields the minimum necessary to make a complete #16 body.<\/p>\n

\"Wapsi<\/p>\n

Assume you have a typical synthetic dubbing like Wapsi\u2019s \u201cAntron\u201d, which has a flue length of just over 2.5\u201d . If you decant a tiny bit and all two and a half inches of the fiber were wrapped with concentric turns onto a thread, what size hook would it be the body for?<\/p>\n

Hint<\/strong>: a lot bigger than you think<\/em> \u2026<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t wrap the fibers on top of one another as it would make the dubbing too thick and would add to the moisture absorbed. We don\u2019t want fibers too long \u2013 requiring us to snip or tear it off the thread, and it\u2019ll burn time as we doctor the shorn area to lock it down. Extra turns of thread and time are also our enemy, making our experimentations with fiber length and the optimal thread load valuable.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

If you think back to those same aquatic mammals that were our introduction to dry fly dubbing, only the beaver had fibers that might\u2019ve been longer than an inch, the balance of those animals; mink, muskrat, and otter, are all short haired critters.<\/p>\n

\"Same<\/p>\n

Transferring that knowledge to flue length, suggests somewhere between 1\/2\u201d and 1 1\/2\u201d should give us similar handling qualities of the aquatic mammals, assuming our materials share their tiny filament width and softness.<\/p>\n

Above is that \u201ctoo small\u201d mist of 1\u201d fibers rendered onto thread. Spun tightly, it renders nearly an inch of body material.<\/p>\n

Swapping the 1\u201d fibers for 1\/2\u201d only decreased the amount of material slightly, perhaps a 1\/4\u201d less at most.<\/p>\n

\"half<\/p>\n

Predictably, our longer fibered Wapsi \u201cAntron\u201d dubbing with its 2.5\u201d flue length covers much more thread, and despite the small diameter of its fibers, shows its unruly nature in the thickness of the noodle it makes.<\/p>\n

\"Wapsi<\/p>\n

After a half dozen turns, the remainder of the above will have to be pulled off the thread and removed. Given that implies more than half of what you grabbed, isn\u2019t that a horrible waste?<\/p>\n

From the above picture I\u2019d make the claim that Wapsi doesn\u2019t market this product as a dry fly dubbing (the label mentions only dubbing). The fly shop this was purchased at had a wall full of Antron colors, and outside of some Ice Dub and a few strips of natural fur, had standardized on this product for both nymphs and dries.<\/p>\n

What actually may have happened is that they were tired of stocking 18 different flavors of stuff that didn\u2019t sell all that well, and reduced the collection to a single flavor \u2013 because it\u2019s all the same right?<\/p>\n

Wrong, and I doubt your shop manager ties flies at all.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still fiddling with fibers, colors and blends, but am almost done on the flue length tests. I\u2019ve got a natural fiber that\u2019s as fine as an aquatic mammal \u2013 which plays hell with blenders, but I\u2019ve got that solved. Now all that\u2019s left is blending of colors and dyeing \u2013 and an entreaty to those that want to field test at my expense.<\/p>\n

Until then \u2013 and using the above photos as a reference, you can eye your local shops offering to measure what fiber length their products provide. Now that you understand that flue length is directly proportional to the amount of thread covered, you can more easily understand why you\u2019ve consistently have more fur than you need, and how you can take a pair of scissors to the package to shorten the fibers to a more useful size.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been in a synthetic rut for the most part of a decade. Vendors are often lazy and package their materials in whatever form is easiest, often the way they receive the product, not what form makes the best fly or tightest noodle on the thread.<\/p>\n

Scissors or a hint of natural fur added to a synthetic can tame its rug yarn roots, making it much more useful than it exists when pulled from the rack.<\/p>\n

Technorati Tags: wapsi<\/a>, antron<\/a>, dubbing fiber length<\/a>, flue length<\/a>, fly tying blog<\/a>, commercial fly tying<\/a>, Free Range dubbing<\/a>, dry flies<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the only part of the fly that works entirely against you, whose real value is the spot of color it leaves when closing the gap between tail and wing. It absorbs water, resists drying, and if ever there was a case for \u201cless is more\u201d this is it. Dry fly dubbing is comparatively humdrum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fly-fishing","category-fly-tying","category-flytyingmats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9072,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7949\/revisions\/9072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singlebarbed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}