dubbing with deer hairAustin, I tried the rope-dub with elk hair just a minute ago, with very good results. I took a hank and chopped it into 1/4" fragments. Deer should work just the same.
1st, I just tried dry rope-dubbing a pinch the fragments. It worked, but not easily. There was a lot of fall-out off the rope before it spun tight. I did get a fly with a segmented look and little tips coming out all over the place. I would need a catch-basket to catch the fragments. I could use wax to hold it together, but that makes the fly tougher to sink. A disolvable waxy substance would work, but the hairs would stick to your fingers when trying to rope it up. Next I picked up the clippings that fell at the base of the vise, along with some miniscule other material fragments- dubbing, hackle fibers, and a tiny bit of awesome hair. I pinched up a bunch, blended just a bit, anchored it, and spun out a very nice, bushy deer-hair rope with a tinge of sparkle in it. Very little hair fell out of the teardrop. The wrapped fly had no segments, but was bushy all the way with a few sparkles to boot. Looked like a caddis case of tiny twigs. Next, I chopped up another hank into even smaller segments and fingered-blended them with a tiny bit of dry fly dubbing (although any fine downy dubbing should work). This yeilded a tighter rope and a cleaner profile on the body, yet still pretty bushy. I think brushing or picking it out before wrapping would give the same results as method 2 above. Using even less dubbing would also work, although I used very little. This would be my pick for lots of identical flies, as it is very fast, easy, and repeatable. For a wet fly, I would use wire for the tying thread, giving it weight and durability. Tie in a tiny green ultra-chennille head (burned black on the tip) peeking out and you'll have a great cased peeking-caddis. Hope this helps. If you want me to photo my experiments, I'll just add them to the rope-dub page on the VFB site, and post the url. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Harvey, Austin To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 9:01 AM Subject: [VFB] dubbing with deer hair Has anyone ever dubbed with deer hair? I found a couple of flies I want to do for the life cycle swap and they have deer hair dubbed bodies. Anything would be appreciated. Austin Harvey
