Chappy,
Thanks for the great review! If you want to write a short review for my
website, I'd be happy to ad it.
You hit on a real important point. Rope-dubbing will do what you want and
very fast, with taper and segment in one pass. Yes.
But, rope dubbing will also do things you've never dreamed of yet. Why? the
one aspect that really makes it different- being locked to the hook and
loose on the thread, and using two hands.
Besides being able to shape the dubbing on the thread, go another step and
compress it and retighten the rope, then compress/retighten til it won't go
anymore.
Now apply this to peacock- wow- fat and juicy bugs. Apply it to furs- wow,
fat and juicy and hairy. And with a hackled rope, the hackling gets even
more dense, and spey feathers make a posickle.
So, open doors... time to get out every piece of fur or hair you can get.
Examine each fur for properties. Evaluate properties. Clip a clump, look
at guard hairs down to the down. Blend some. Now pull guard hairs out and
blend underhairs. Now pull out the down and blend just it. Blend just
guard hairs.
Wow- lots of options, how does the rope dub come into play?
Here's how. Rope-dub a blended clump. Nice, taper, segments. Brush it-
nice and fuzzy.
OK, only partially there.
Cut off a clump, tie down just some of the tips and rope it towads the
butts. Hmmmm. Sweet. What a taper.
Undo it and as you rope again, stretch it along the thread, thin it out and
then clump the thorax. Sweet, too.
Unrope and re-rope, this time picking out guard-hair tips as you rope. Wrap
and the body is hackled with guard-hair tips.
Now tie another clump in by just a few of the butt ends. It gets tough now.
Carefully spin and stretch as you rope the whole clump around the thread,
using ALL of your fingertips from both hands. As it starts to rope, grab
your material clip and attach it a half inch below the tip of the rope. Now
spin it like the video, and wrap the fly. When you get to the guard-hair
tips at the clip, make them flare and spin and you have guard-hair hackles
on a segmented underfur body- one step.
How many furs and hairs? Open doors all. Above is just the tip of the
ice-berg. Have fun playing.
Don
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chappy" <[email protected]>
To: "VFB Mail" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 7:12 PM
Subject: [VFB] Rope Dub .. to Tube Flies..
Nice work Don. I turned on the video and never took my eyes off of
it. I wanted more..... Well done.
As I mentioned, I have rope dubbed for many years (the first time the
article appeared on VFB) and although I have no problem with it, I
hardly ever play with it. I know what dubbed body I want and use the
rope dubbing process to achieve it. However, I realize I do not fully
take advantage of the fact that the dubbing is loose on the thread.
As I mentioned, I like Uni 8/0 and it is not what I call smooth. Ans
since when I use dubbing it is quite sparse as I seldom tie a fly that
doesn't have 4 or 5 components where the dubbing is only 1 of them.
So a lot of new ideas were going through my mind watching the video.
Another thing is that I do teach rope dub techniques in my fly tying
classes but only as the best way to get dubbing (including peacock) on
the fly. I could easily have two classes with just working on rope
dubbing with a lot of materials. Some of the class will struggle
with the rope dub but after a quick walk around everyone get its
fairly quickly. But again, rope dub the way I have been teaching it
has been with a purpose and a goal. I sadly have missed the point.
That being - rope dubbing should not have to have a purpose and a
goal. It is the only way I dub - it always can do what I want.
But now I am thinking, what are the bounds of rope dubbing? I surely
do not know. It has been a long time since I have put the hook in the
vise without completing a fly. I am getting excited thinking about
going through materials and really seeing what it can do.
A few come to mind - Z-lon dubbing (from Blue Ribbon) as this stuff is
a pain to dub. Chickabou feathers and underfeathers. Of course
Australian Possum (thanks Don - that patch is beautiful - I will not
dye this - it is so good natural.) I am now thinking of creating a
bushy usual with dubbed snowshoe - just trimmed. No doubt it would be
twice a buoyant. Seal, arctic fox. Now I am thinking about adding
chopped rubber legs, chopped unique hair.
Don Ordes, nice work. I will take good care of this video. My kids 8
and 4 actually liked it although they did not see the whole thing.
But I can set up the vises and dump a ton of material on the table,
and I am sure they would enjoy playing.
Of course - I would set my 4 yr old up with a tube adapter so he can
make - CAT TOYS. Use plastic tubes.
I like making tube flies, especially my 3-eyed smelt. As a troller
for salmon, I don't need to cast them so mimicking a smelt -which is
3D - in that there are 3 eyes and 3 cheeks that meet perfectly around
the tube - are fun to make and fun to fish.
But I will say other than that, I am not too big on tube flies over
conventional.
Take care. I am so glad I now have so much room to grow and improve
on rope dubbing.
Thanks again Don.
Chappy.
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