Awesome, Don. Thank you. DonO said " One trick is also not to overhandle the dubbing. When you buy dubbing in a bag, just grab a pinch and drag it out."
What an excellent idea. I will certainly try that. (And practice!) And thanks very much for the offer on the flies. I will send my address offline. Jim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of DonO Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 11:39 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VFB] Rope-dubbing 101C, A, b2.4, 5, &6 Jim, others... It takes practice because of the multitude of critters there are to tie with. Clipping and blending helps level the field. When blended, the guard hares are all bunched up with the underhairs, so they act as binders to help the rope start. Dubbings from different animals will act similar when dubbed, but then they also look similar when tied. ON the other hand, dubbing from the 'raw' hide has other advantages. From a raw hide, the dubbing clump is already tapered, and the guard-hair tips are the tip of the teardrop and the underfur is the fat end of the teardrop. THe guard hairs extend beyond the underhairs, so this can be use to start the rope anchor and to 'hackle' the tail without hackles, depending on the fur. The guard hairs give excellent segmentation and durability and the underfur makes the taper and bulky thorax of the fly- all in one step. Brush or pick out the twisted rope at different times to achieve different brushy or fuzzy effects. The advantage of this is that you use the difference of the animal to acheive different effects. One trick is also not to overhandle the dubbing. When you buy dubbing in a bag, just grab a pinch and drag it out. THere are a few trailing fibers. Spin these into a point and tie them down and start the rope. Depending on how much you tie down to start makes for how fat the tail is to start- dry fly or stone fly. Once you have the dubbing tied down, form the teardrop by stretching it alongside the thread- whatever shape you stretch it out dictates the shape of the fly = practice. Now rope it around the thread without letting the thread spin (see video), and then wrap the fly. Now comes the beauty of the rope-dub technique. Don't like what you see? Too much dubbing? too little? wrong taper, not enough brown blended in, want some sparkle, stronger/weaker segments? Just unwrap the body, and make adjustments to the rope. Since the rope is not tied down to the core, it slides up and down the core, allowing for any adjustments you care to make. With loops, split-thread, noodled dubbing, you're pretty much stuck what you built to start with. For those who have learned to rope-dub my way, you can see how useless wax is- it's actually counter-productive and ruins the looks you can get. It also creates bouyancy in wet flies and dulls the luster of synthetics. Rope-dub relies on friction, not adhesion. One more 'trick'. Once you have a rope on the core, you can always add another rope without anchoring again. Just use the end of the previous rope to start the new rope. Since it relies on friction, it'll grab right on and start roping. Neat, huh. So if you've roped the tail and now want to change colors (and even add a hackle), just leave a little tag end of the previous rope and start a new rope. Another trick. (I just love tricks) When you want to do a body that you want to pick out and fuzz up, just rope real tight and the let the rope go. It will un-twist most of the wway , but not all of the way. Now wrap the body. THere's enough twist left to hold it down, but it's loose enough now to pick out hairs to fuzz it up. When I'm doing a raw fur dub, I do the tail real tight for segments (even if I pick it out), and then when I get to the body, I loosen up so I can pick out the body. I can wrap the loose dubbing down tightly so it doesn't move or fall out too. I can pick out the loose fibers I want on the rope or after the body is wrapped. NOTHING BUT OPTIONS. I love it. I have some MORE REALLY NEAT tricks, but I'm saving them for the video. And when you get real good, Jim, I'll show you how to rope mole hair. Jim, send me you address and I'll send you some samples of critter rope-dub flies. I'll also add some peacock and hackle roped flies. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Collins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 7:56 AM Subject: RE: [VFB] Rope-dubbing Marabou > Hi Don, > > I use the robe-dubbing technique a lot (thanks for the explanation on your > site) but only when I'm using synthetics. I have not figured out how to use > it with, for example, a bunch of hare's ear dubbing. I frequently use > packages of dubbing you can buy already cut and dyed. With this, how do you > form that noodle to tie in first? > > Jim C > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of DonO > Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 12:06 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [VFB] Rope-dubbing Marabou > > Chuck, > > Lefty was demo-ing right before me two years ago in Denver, just after his > heart attack and stroke. > > He demo'd that tie you're describing, but he didn't rope-dub around the wire > like I do. He just twisted the chennille and hackle to make a rope. When > you rope on the wire as a core, it gives you a lot of alternatives for > tying. See the VFB site for the all-in-one wooly-bugger tie in the rope-dub > article. > > As far as short flies go, I can get 28 segments rope-dubbed on a #28 dry fly > hook. > > Not many people 'get' the technique until they see it in person. It's just > too easy to jump-assume that it's like the other techniques. > > DonO > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.410 / Virus Database: 268.17.12/654 - Release Date: 1/27/2007 > >
