Does anyone know what is used as an ingredient to impart the sparkle to the really sparkily dubbings?
I always thought it was chopped up holographic tinsel.
Doug
I use a product called ‘Ice Dub’ by the Hareline company. It’s a very flashy dubbing that I mix with regular dubbibg to add a little sparkle.
Duck,
As Ken said, “Ice Dub” is great stuff to add to dubbing, but any bright synthetic added to a fur dubbing will imbue some sparkle. Adding an antron dubbing would be a bit subtle in flashiness. Ice Dub is a even flashier. If you are looking for a lot of flash, “Flashabou Dubbing” or “Lite Bright” are the brightest dubbings I’ve found (they are essentially finely shredded mylar). The amount you add of course depends on what you are fishing for and the effect you are trying to get.
Luck.
What you use depends on the look you want to achieve. You can go from mild to wild with the enhancements to your dubbing. If you just want a bit of flash, I use chopped antron. You can get it in clear, or various colors and chop it about 1/8 inch long.
If you want more flash, you can add Wapsi Dubbing enhancer, or for more flash, chopped angel hair or flashabou. The finer angel hair isn’t as bright when added to dubbing as the flashabou would be. Flashabou makes some actual dubbing mixes you can get which you can use to dub right out of the package.
Ice dub, as previously mentioned, is another option. I use it as I really like the UV colors you can get it in. I use a lot of the Brown Olive for dubbing thoraxes and also on wooly buggers for bodies and collars. It comes in around 30 different colors which you could select to closely match the dubbing color desired or even seek a contrasting dubbing blend. It could be added to dubbing blends, but I generally don’t use it as an additive, preferring to use it as a straight dubbing.
Experiment. There is no one additive that is the end all to be all.
I always tried to add very little reflective material to my flies. I guess I could see tying a fly with nothing but reflective material and no natural materials if I was targeting saltwater fish or large freshwater fish. I learned from fishing patterns that had very little reflective material that less was better.
Doug
Someone sent me an email …or was it a PM …about what they used …Arizona…I’m sorry but I can’t remember who or what and I’ve lost the correspondence …please send again…thanks…
Read this about dubbing sparkle: