I want to tie up a few of Scott Sanchez’s Parachute Midge Emergers and Scott has done the impossible in his recipe. Scott has listed a type of dubbing, Scintilla, that I don’t have and don’t know much about. IN GENERAL, is Scintilla considered to be a dry fly dubbing, a wet fly/nymph dubbing or a mixed purpose dubbing. Since Scott’s midge sits Klinkhammer style in the water, I assume the dubbing is intended to take on some water but I would love to get a quick confirmation from a couple of loyal (and hopefully knowledgeable) FAOLers. Once I know Scintilla’s general category or type, I can substitute one of the several thousand dubbings that I do have. Thanks in advance for your help. 8T
I think they make a couple of varieties. The stuff I have says “Multi-Purpose Dubbing” and I have used it on both drys and nymphs. It fills a gap between superfine and more course or spikey dubbings. I like it.
Scintilla is a long fibered mix of synthetic and natural and while it could be used in dries, I personally think it is too coarse for that application and I only use it for nymphs. Its defining characteristic is that it is a blend of colors, so to achieve a particular shade you’ll want to blend different colors to get the right combination. Considering that you are going to be tying an emerger, I think any synthetic would work. Having worked with Scintilla, I’d probably use Sparkle Blend, Paxton’s Buggy Nymph, Trilobal, or Antron as substitutes, either blended or straight.
Last time I tried to pick up some Scintilla, I had a heck of a time finding any so I suspect that it may have been discontinued. A reasonable substitute should not be hard to make.
Scintilla Dubbing is still available, heck i keep 56 colours of it here in the shop. It’s hard to believe that we fly tyers really need that many different colours of one type of dubbing.
I want to thank everyone for your help and suggestions. As I suspected, I’ve got plenty of dubbing that will substitute well for Scintilla. Sounds to me as if any moderately sparkly dubbing will fill in very nice. I did a quick search on Goggle and it seems that Scintilla has been discontinued though some suppliers like Jamie seem to have a good supply. Others are listing it as going, going, gone and have only limited colors left. Three shops have listed their Scintilla as hard to find and rare so if you have a favorite color, you might want to order a couple of packs while you can from Jamie. Typical of the warning are message posted by Fly Tying World:
“This classic dubbing is being discontinued and extremely hard to find. Selection is limited to stock on hand, while they last. Better get it while you can.”
