Dubbing?

[Buddy Sanders]

The thread on the hare's mask brought this to mind.

I'm big into doing it yourself. I buy the vast majority of my materials from other than traditional fly shop/catalog sources. I haunt craft stores, hardware stores, second hand shops and dollar stores. I find an incredible amount of stuff that can be perverted into some flies or assist me in making some. I spend hours doing this. Hundreds of hours over the course of a year. I enjoy it.

But I just don't get making your own dubbing.

When I walk into any fly shop, or open a fly tying catalog, I see ready to go dubbing made in an incredibly vast amount of colors and dozens of materials, all optimized for particular purposes. And it's all pretty inexpensive, if not downright cheap based on the amount of flies you'd get from a bag of it.

I have some hare's masks, plus lots of other stuff that would be used for dubbing. I even have the blenders for it and some neat scissors that cut with four blades at once for chopping furs down to size.

But I just can't see the point. I waste lots of time saving money on fly tying, but this is one area where I just can't justify the effort. A buck seventy five for a ready made bag of hares ear dubbing, or half an hour making half as much from the mask that cost about the same. It gets worse when you start talking about having some color variations from the natural. I can buy it cheaply in lots of colors. If you have to dye it before you make the dubbing, that's just way too much for me.

I'd get it if the resulting dubbing was somehow better than the packaged stuff. It's not. Especially for the first couple of dozen attempts. Doing anything like this is a skill that requires some practice to become proficient at it.

I'd get it if the slight color differences were critical. They're not. Besides, with the vast array of ready made colors available, you can mix what's on the rack into any concievable color easily if you just can't live with the ready to go blends.

I'd even get it if it was fun to do. Not for me. Them little hairs get everywhere, the bunny faces are creepy, and you seldom get what you want on the first, or even the fifth, attempt.

Maybe if you harvested the animal involved and didn't want to waste any of it. But I don't hunt and the gifted hair and fur I've recieved is useful for other things.

I'm trying to eliminate dubbing in my tying anyway. I like other methods and the fish don't seem to care, but even when I did a lot of it, I bought it.

Buddy

[Eric-WD]

I tend to agree, we as a group are tradition bound, we use hairs mask because that is the way it has always been done. Not that it is the only way to do the job. For me buying the rabbit dubbing is a better way. On the other hand I like to use mink as a dubbing so far I haven't found it as a commercial product so I make it.

I guess in the end it is what ever makes us happy, lets face it most of us tie because it makes us happy, we tie far more flies than we can fish. If tying with silk, cobbler's wax, hares mask etc make someone happy, helps them feel in touch with those who have gone before etc. then that's what they should do.

Eric

[rookie]

Buddy, I sure do agree with what you say from the perspective in which you present it. I enjoy dying and making my own dubbing just because it's something related to tying. Most of the flies I tie will never be seen by man or fish. I guess you might say dying is part of the hobby for me. I like looking at the finished product and saying "I did it". I don't do it to save money, although I don't have any anyway. If I was trying to save money and money being related to time, I would never try to make my own dubbing or dubbing colors. To me, it's just fun.

[Jayatwork]

In the case of "Hare's ear" dubbing, I find that home blended is better than the prepackaged stuff available at my local fly shops. The color and texture are quite different.

Most of the time there is a premade dubbing that will work fine. They don't always produce the results I expect when looking at the package though. Once in awhile I want a particular combination of spikiness, sparkle and dubability (is that a word?). That's when I break out the blender.

[Gandolf]

Hi Buddy,

Natural fur dubbing is what I like best, but I have had difficulty finding natural fur dubbing that is ideal for small dry flies, in that it has virtually no guard hairs. There are no fly shops that have much in the way of materials very close, so I mostly depend on mail order.

For that reason I make my own fur dubbing. I have not made every color I use yet, but may eventually some day. I start with white rabbit fur, dye it the color needed, and then make the dubbing, carefully pulling out all of the guard hair that I can. The guard hair and some of the underfur that comes out with it goes in one container, and the clean stuff goes in a different container.

When done, the two dubbing containers get individually blended, and I end up with dry fly dubbing, and a seperate container of nymph dubbing. The products are one container of dubbing that is superb for dry flies, and one container that is very spikey for nymphs.

For that reason I have made my own fur dry fly dubbing, but I don't make a lot of the synthetic dubbings I use, some, but only a small percentages. For me, it seems pretty expensive to buy all of the stuff needed for blending into the different types of mixed synthetic dubbings, so I am not interested in making any of those. I don't use enough to make it worth while.

Regards,

Gandolf

[aged_sage]

Hi Buddy:

You definitely have some valid points, and I use store-bought dubbing. However, the "paint store sampler blandness" of some of it leaves a lot to be desired, IMHO. There are no highlights, subtle shade changes, etc., to it. Therefore, just for grins, if for no other reason, I like to add a pinch of olive and a smidgen of red to black dubbing, and a pinch of black and a smidgen of red to olive. Brown gets a bit of black, olive and red.These additions just seem to make these dubbings look more life-like, to my way of thinking. I have yet to see a nymph or adult insect that had a uniform color and shade over its, entire body.

[Jeff Clough]

The main reason I've gotten into tying in the first place is so that I'll have another way to engage with and enjoy fly fishing even when I can't make it out to the water. I figure being able to make my own dubbing however I want would be just a natural extension of that idea. I may try my hand at rod building at some point for the same reason.

Of course, there's a limit to my patience and I have some natural dubbing blends on the way just in case the "roll your own" method proves to be more of a hassle than I'm willing to go through.

[ducksterman]

Needloft craft yarn...nylon...cut up makes a very nice synthetic dubbing...nice sheen........inexpensive...25 cents for a small skein at Wal-Mart when I got mine....

[narcodog]

I have tons of pre made dubbing but in the last coupe of years I have gone to natural fur and hair. I mix my blends with hare, rabbit possum, seal and some polar bear to get the look and texture I want. I use a quite a bit of Hares mask of the base that has been died then add what I want. I can't tell you the last time I tied with a synthetic and I tie practically ever day. I also use a lot of dyed beaver which I think dubs the finest dry flies.

I may have gotten off track here but maybe you all can figure it out.
This cold weather has caused my brain to slow down.

[NJTroutbum]

Straight rabbit and "hares mask" are very different. Hare's mask has the stiffer guard hairs only found in the mask area. A great substitute is squirrel. I also blend squirrel and rabbit dubbing for an even spikier blend than hares mask.