Dubbing Brush or Dubbing Loop?

I've been looking at dubbing brushes, and the platforms for making them, and I have a question:

Why can't you just tie in an Ultrawire loop, and make a brush as you tie the fly, just like you would a regular dubbing loop?

I am going to experiment with this and see if it works. Stay tuned.....

You can. I do that when I an dubbing a nymph, the wire adds extra weight and durability, otherwise I just loop my thread and form a dubbing loop while I am tying.

Larry ---sagefisher---

As Larry stated, you can. I would recommend that you still look into making your own dubbing brushes too. There are nights that I just do not feel like tying but want to do something which involves tying and I will sit down and make up different dubbing brushes. It is fun and you will have them all ready made up which will save you time when you are tying flies with dubbed bodies.

I should've known that someone would've thought of that already..... Oh, well, it just means that brilliant minds think alike....

Those brush-makers are expensive, and I was just curious as to why someone would buy one of those (or even worse, completed brushes to the tune of $6.99 for 6-10 inches worth...), if you don't have to.

I just modified one of Puglisi's shrimp patterns into a crawfish (just add claws and change the colors to brown and orange....and viola! Instant crawfish). He used one of his brushes, so I made mine up as I tied the fly, with thin copper wire as a dubbing loop, then trimmed it to shape. I think mine turned out just as good as his (even if it did take 10 minutes instead of 5), and my wallet hasn't lost any weight. I used some sparse orange bucktail and a few strands of copper Krystal Flash for the mouth parts and feelers, a little brown bucktail (divided) for the claws, two bead chain eyes, and the rest was alternating orange and brown Puglisi Fibers, cut to 1 inch lengths, and a few strands of the copper Krystal Flash in a wire dubbing loop. I tied on a set of barbell weights on top of the shank, near the hook-eye so it would ride hook-up. It looks great and I am going to try it on the stream tomorrow. If a SM Bass doesn't grab it, I am really going to be surprised.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...psf0957482.jpg

Here is another version that I made with the same technique, but I made the body more dense, cropped it closer and added a pair of rubber legs (green was all I had in the barred style, but the fish didn't seem to mind...). I just got back from testing it out in the stream behind the house (which is why it looks wet and chewed..). In 1 hour, I caught 2 SM bass, a catfish and two carp on it.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps614d0ddf.jpg

I think the technique works.....

As you've found out, you can do it without a dubbing brush, it's just that a dubbing brush usually makes it easier and sometimes give yu the option of doing other creative things at the bench. I've made well over 100 dubbing brush twisters and they are not difficult to make. Send me a PM if you'd like the plans to make your own. That way you can have the best of both worlds. Just one other possibility.

Jim Smith

Gigmaster,

Take Jim up on his offer of his plans. I have one of his Dubbing Blocks and it is a fine piece of work and works great! Jim is one of the "good guys" on FAOL and I hope to meet him one day.

One of the advantages of a dubbing brush is that in 5 minutes or less you can have a brush made that can tie several flies.
I have several brushes made up, with various materials and many colors.
My son made mine of of Jims directions.

Rick

I use both dubbing loops while I'm tying and dubbing brushes made up ahead of time. I would second the notion of taking James Smith up on his offer of plans. With his plans and some basic woodworking skills, you can make a dubbing brush tools quite inexpensively. I where a dubbing brush was an advantage vs. a loop is:
a) efficient production tying -- ie, when I need a couple dozen or more of something
b) when I want to do a custom dubbing with multiple materials and especially with materials that are hard to dub -- eg, mixing bits of rubber or flash material with dubbing

I second the thought on Jim's dubbing brush maker. I need to get some done and this is incentive.
Mike