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Silk Dubbing
By A.K. BEST
I've always preferred tying my flies with natural
materials. I tried all the fine, super-fine and ultra-fine synthetic
dryfly dubbing I could get my hands on, but I couldn't seem to get my
mayfly bodies tight enough using synthetics. All my dryfly bodies were
fuzzy, and that's not how naturals appear to me. It's what drove me
to start using stripped and dyed rooster-neck hackle quills. And then
I have this personal thing about feeling like I'm somehow dishonoring
the trout by using synthetics on a fly that I expect the fish to eat.
I know, we could get into a long philosophical discussion with questions
about nylon leaders, and plastic-coated fly lines with nylon or Kevlar
cores, but trout don't eat leaders or fly lines, do they? At least we
don't expect them to.
When the day comes that I run out of quills or can't get them anymore,
my fall-back body material for dry flies is definitely going to be silk
dubbing. It's distributed by Kreinik (www.kreinik.com). The individual
fibers are extremely fine, they compress around the thread tighter than
anything else I've used, it's easily dyed and blended, and the completed
body has a natural sheen, much like the living insect. In fact, you
can dub silk onto the tying thread so tightly that you can get a ribbed
effect. A big bonus is being able to dub a body—of proper proportions—on
a size 26 or 28 hook.
Since silk dubbing compresses so well, you might want to consider using
it on size 18 and smaller hooks. I'd also recommend using 8/0 or finer
tying thread, which should be as close to the dubbing color as possible.
Always choose a lighter-color thread if you can't get a good match.
The secret to using silk dubbing is to pinch off very tiny tufts that
you will twist tightly onto the thread to make the dubbing rope. Always
add very small amounts. Some dubbing materials can be removed from the
tying thread if you get too much on it, but not silk. And, always attempt
to create a finely tapered dubbing rope if you want to have a smoothly
tapered body on your finished fly.
That’s it.—A.K.
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