Got to thinking about a remark made by one of the frequent contributors on FAOL where he mentioned that he didn’t use dubbing. This made me wonder if you have a dislike for using a common fly tying material and if so why.
To start it off I very seldom using metal beads. I much prefer Czech silver lined glass beads which are much less expensive than metal and the difference in weight can be made up with lead/lead free wire.
Tim
I use some stuff more than others, but I can’t say there’s anything I won’t use. I have some vinyl tubing that I don’t use a lot of other than one specific fly I tie (dry fly on scud hook, parachuet style with the ribbing for a body, essentially a midge kind of).
There are colors I use more than others (I use a lot of brown and grizzly for Adams, and black and olive for warm water flies like woolie buggers). I use a lot of silver and gold tinsel for minnow imitation flies.
I can’t think of anything I “never” use (there’s a lot of stuff I don’t have but the stuff I’ve bought/traded/been given, I use).
Jeff
marabou!:mad:
it gets all over the place and thats just taking it out of the baggie!
hares ear is about the same thing. it gets all over the place!
Maybe the question should have been what do you prefer.
I like natural materials especially if I can incorporate a material I harvested myself.
The bottom line though…is it acceptable fly tying material or not. By that I mean…can I use it and still be considered fly fishing.
Dubbing wax.
Why: Unnecessary.
.
Wings.
For a lot of dry flies, especially small ones, I don’t wing them. Seems kinda unnecessary, especially if the wings blend in with the hackle (i.e. Adams)
I also find that I have a lot of Wood Duck flank that I end up with after hunting season which I give/trade away.
Calf Tail and Calf Body Hair. I have both and never use either. I always opt for T-base feathers or poly pro.
I used to wonder “why dub if you can use chenille?” I avoided dubbing if I could, because I was not good at it. Then I saw a video of a guy doing it, and it looked so easy! Now I dub or chenille, depending on what the pattern calls for, or the look I want, or the color I need. I actually enjoy dubbing and even dubbing loops now. Like Dave E, I also don’t use dubbing wax.
I use deer hair for wings and such, but try to avoid spinning with it. I was decent at doing it, but it wasn’t easy by any means, it took a lot of time (for me), plus it is messy. So, I can’t say I DON’T do it, but I admit I avoid doing it.
I no longer use head cement of any kind. I got really frustrated with it either clogging my eyes or spilling on my desk, so now I just simply use a double whip finish. I’ve been using the double whip finish on all of my flies for over a year now and haven’t had a single fly come apart at the knot.
I like to stick to natural materials as much as possible. But only out of personal preference.
If you’re casting it with a fly rod it’s fly fishing. Even if it’s a spinner fly with an added stinger hook like so:
http://www.landbigfish.com/images/store/swatches/JOE-Supers.jpg
Traditional? No, but still fly fishing if using a flyrod. As for the material part, I’d venture to say that most fly tyers would say they wont use spinner blades and clevis’s on flies they tie.
Hi Panman,
I dislike using coarse dubbing, both natural and synthetic because it is more of a pain to dub than fine dubbing. However, some of it works so well, for example the Irridescent Dubbing that Ronn Lucas makes and I use on stonefly nymphs, that I do tie stonefly nymphs with it. Rabbit or muskrat is easier to use, but the Irridescent Dubbing works extremely well, so I use it.
Regards,
Gandolf
Hi Norm,
When I first started tying I bought some loose duck breast feathers from Herter’s that were just like your marabou. They were 33 cents for the most generous once of feathers you have ever seen. Once the package was open (a brown lunch bag) there was no getting the genie back in the bottle or the lunch bag as the case may be. I was forced to ditch the entire bag years later because there was virtually no controlling the feathers. They were in everything, Loose marabou is admittedly ugly stuff but it doesn’t hold a candle to to those duck breast feathers. I think I still have a few renege duck feathers hiding out in every material bin and fly tying drawer I own even after deep-sixing the original bag and feathers over thirty-five years ago. 8T 
I used dubbing in my dubbing brush for some patterns (for big toothy fish) so I have the dubbing held, twined in furled wire, wrapped around the hook shank. I some times place dubbing inside a thread loop for the thorax on a fly pattern for a fuller body (versus the abdomen portion).
I use very thin chenille when i am doing a weave pattern on the hook shank. I use metal beads for when I am bending the hook shank so the fly pattern will be jigged with the hook spear up and not down (for fishing directly on the bottom).
I use wings on dry fly, so I can see them on the water surface ( you do not have to follow the pattern), nothing says you cannot hit the tips of the wings with so yellow or orange fingernail polish! There is a series “Flies Only” on FAOL, about dry flies, and how the fish perceive them on the water surface. I think that if you have not read this 9 part series, you really should!
The materials and tools of a Fly Tyier helps them expand their repertoire. Think of it as you are in first grade in school and all you have is the 8 colored crayons (brown, black, yellow, green, blue, violet, red, orange) to work with. Then in third grade you get a box of colored crayons with 16 colors, then you find that there are other crayon boxes with 126 crayons, and others that have 252 crayons. Your possibilities keep expanding with the expansion of material that you can choose between.
If you only have a hammer, then any problem calls for a hammer, even if it is not the right tool for the project. ~Parnelli
By your definition, one could use an angleworm as part of the pattern and still be considered fly fishing.
My definition of what constitutes a fly is really pretty broad. My definition of fly fishing isn’t.