Cock of the Walk

Took the kids to the zoo today and all I could think about was how to get away with nabbing a few peacock swords, as well as some bison, camel, and dall sheep fur. I think I have a disease....

squirrel nut zippers

From this:


To this:




Super Squirrel dub.

squirrelz

I recently scored on a bunch of squirrel pelts off of ebay. Five for $12, plus free priority mail shipping to boot. To add to the awesomeness, there were two extra hides thrown in the box. Price per pelt was down to $2.18, the cheapest I've been able to find, even cheaper than Coffin Creek Furs when you factor in shipping and handling costs. The hides were in great condition, all fleshed out, salted, and dried. I didn't find any bugs, but I'm taking no chances. The hides have already been quarantined and sent to the deep freeze chamber for a week's sentence. Between the freeze, a dye bath, and some borax for the non-dyed skins, that should take care of all the critters. Besides, there's nothing a little trip into the microwave can't take care of.


You may wonder what in the hell I'm gonna do with 22 squirrel pelts. No, I'm not gonna make myself a toupée or a squirrel suit. And I'm not gonna use them for Zonkers, though that is a great idea but better suited for a tanned skin. I'm gonna dye up a bunch of them skins and chop them furs for dubbin'. I've got a few big batches I need to make for use down the road. Squirrel is the ultimate fur for a buggy nymph blend.

mason's children

Unassuming, a spool of mason line strikes no fancy to the casual fly angler. Hell, even most fly tyers would look past this spindle of ghastly colored fluorescent pink twine, not even thinking twice about its use behind the vise. It is only in the deep dark reaches of a mad scientist, where upon a routine Saturday morning at the local store, one finds an oddly placed item lurking in the depths of the clearance aisle and thinks,
"fly tying material!".


Composed of nylon, polyester, and/or polypropylene, mason line hardly seems like an ideal material to the typical fly tyer, especially when it comes in cerise. Fluorescent pink isn't typically a color most tyers reach for, unless you're a steelheader or fish Alaska. To the dubbist, the same situation applies; no need to make hot pink dubbing if you won't be tying hot pink patterns. Ah so, but if you're crazy enough behind the vise, good things begin to happen.


This particular brand of mason line has a composition that is very antron like. In fact, when chopped up and blended, this line resembles STS Trilobal dubbing from Hare-Line. Almost spot on. I don't typically dub flies in straight pink, unless I'm tying in collars on a batch of Pink Squirrels. However, I do use quite a bit of pink synthetics to add highlights to my dubbing blends. This stuff is righteous. I'm a firm believer that good things don't just happen, you make them happen.



The best thing about the mason line? I picked up a 75 yard spool of it for $1, nearly a quarter of it's retail price. Mad indeed.

Attack of the dubz

More of the same, except now in the tasty new flavors Walnut, Char-truce, Red Tide, Highlander, Donkey Kong, and Slim Shady. Ingredient list includes various fibers such as rayon, polypropylene, wool, acrylic fibers, polyamide fibers, antron, trilobal nylon, rabbit, hare's mask, finn raccoon, and Huacaya alpaca. Close up photos taken under natural lighting conditions.







All I need is a killer purple blend and classic white and I'll have just about every color of the rainbow covered. If anyone has a color suggestion, I'm all ears. Leave your request in the comments.

krystal meth dubz

More fun with dubbing. I chopped up a bunch of my recent scores: embroidery floss, lip cord, and Wool-Ease yarn, along with some antron and trilobal nylon and blended away. I added some rabbit and hare (not shown) for some binder and wrapper and the blend was banging. Plenty of flash here. Like a hit of ice.



A few obligatory ties with the Krystal Meth dub:



I hope them caprs don't end up with a case of Meth Mouth.

more yarnage

More colors to add to the arsenal of Wool-Ease yarn. Wool-Ease Worsted Weight is an 80% acrylic, 20% wool blend, at 3 oz per 197 yd skein. Colors du jour include Blue Mist and Forest Green Heather.



Bodacious.

Tanuki

The Finn Raccoon, or Tanuki, has wonderful bushy, coarse fur, ideal for zonkers or Scandi style tube flies. So what do you do with the leftover trimmings after cutting the fur from the hide? You package them up and send them stateside to your mate who likes to dabble in the dark arts of dubbing, that's what.



Thanks to Brother Si for shipping these dregs across the Atlantic. These will blend up nicely.

Yarnage

I don't know what my affinity is for yarn, but when a skein catches the corner of my eye, I need to thumb it over and examine each fiber closely. It's a disease. My stockpile is ever growing; I'm amassing a collection of fiber concoctions in near every shade of the spectrum, yet I keep adding to the horde. Sure yarn is an inexpensive means of collecting dyed fibers for dubbing blends, but when is enough enough?


After a point, blending enough colors of yarn, fur, synthetics, and other animal fibers will compose a single shade, whether or not you used 5 or 500 different colored fibers. So is it overkill to collect yarn in a bazillion different shades of green? Here's why I say not: there are as many different variations of nylon, rayon, polyester, and acrylic fibers, as well as blends of these fibers, as there are carp in the Mississippi. Some of these fibers have unique refractory properties, while others are just plain sublime. Besides, when a skein of mix fiber yarn is marked down from $5 to $1, you gotta fill up the cart, especially when the yarn is a sexy blend of polyester and acrylic fibers. Silky Silky crazy crazy night. Perhaps the main reason I like yarn so much is the fact that many of the colors from the factory contain insane color combinations of fibers, something that I may not consider unless I was taking hits from the bong or smoking some crack-cocaine. I have to admit, I have gotten inspiration for a spectral dubbing blend from a wacky multi-colored yarn on more than one occasion. And it won't be the last.


Another score, a card of heather grey craft yarn, perfect filler for a synthetic version of a hare's ear blend. Of course, purple is deadly for adding UV like highlights to a blend. So what do I do with all the skeins of dud yarn? Maybe I should take up knitting.....

chunky yarn

Wool-Ease Chunky Yarn in Willow and Walnut. Chunky Yarn is a 80% Acrylic, 20% Wool blend, at 5.00 oz. per 153 yd skein. The Willow is a subtle blend of sea foam green, light olive, white, and purple fibers, a perfect base blend for an insect or caddis green dub. The Walnut is a bit more complex, with a crimson/red, olive, and navy composition. There aren't even any brown fibers in the yarn; your eyes are playing tricks on you vis-à-vis Gestalt Psychology. This just proves the point that using the color wheel to compose a spectral dubbing blend isn't a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Like much of nature, rarely is an organism ever composed truly of one single color, but rather a composition of complimentary colors forming a perceived shade.



More yarnly goodness for the do-it-yourself dubber.

flossie

Awhile back, I mentioned a quick and easy substitute for seal fur, floss. 4 strand rayon floss works great, and most fly shops carry it for a $1/spool for 10 yards of material. For those of us without access to a nearby shop, embroidery floss will work just the same. For one dollar you can get an 8 yard skein of rayon floss that is between two to three times the amount of floss of that four strand floss. Better yet, your wife or significant other may already have a stash hiding in her sewing kit. If you get caught yoinking her floss, however, don't go blaming me for the idea. Just tell her that you wanted to make her a "friendship bracelet". Yeah, that's the ticket...


If you want to get an even better deal on floss, then look no further than some twisted lip cord. Found in the fabric section of most craft and fabric stores and even some big box stores, this is the motherload of cheapo DIY floss. The cord at the Hobby Lobby runs $0.99/yard, plus there was an additional 30% off sale price; can't beat that. There are many varieties out there so keep a close eye on the composition of the cord materials. Many will contain a cotton blend; stay away from those. Look for cord made up of rayon, nylon, polypropelene or a blend. I opted for a rayon/polypro blend, as the cord can serve double duty. The cord is composed of a polypro core, coated with a rayon outer that easily separates from each other. I can use the rayon and the polypro for dubbing, but I can also use the polypro for wings or posts.



I love a good bargain.

Sir Dubz-Alot

More alchemy at the blender. Presenting the Prime Time players Brownstain, Olivine, TanTalize, and Melon Baller. Featuring a proprietary blend of Mohair, rabbit, squirrel, acrylic, rayon, nylon, and polyacrylamide fibers, Showcased in both flash and natural lighting conditions.












My best work yet. Muahahahahaha!

For Your Eyes Only

When Singlebarbed told me that he literally had risked life and limb to smuggle some Classified materials into the Roughfisher Command Post, I thought he was putting me on until I saw proof. He warned me of the inclement danger inherent when handling this stuff and told me to survey my surroundings before opening. He was right, this stuff should be locked in a vault in Fort Knox.


Regarding the classified contents of the container:

You all are on a need to know basis, and right now you don't need to know.

All I can divulge is that this stuff rocks the shit and will blow your mind. It will change the face of fly tying forever.


End Transmission.

Watchout Rocky

Next time those squirrels are gorging at the bird feeder or damaging your trees, think smart and put those critters to use.


Harvested from the American Red Squirrel, Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. The red squirrel has a distinct dark barring and almost a bleached out look at the tip of the tail hair fibers. This will will make for an interesting presentation when tied in as a tail, almost like that of Coq de Leon, but heavier. Fairly short, coarse, and inexpensive, red squirrel tails are also great for using as a dubbing base for a buggy nymph blend. I can't wait to apply this to some Thunderbirds or Admiral Akbars.

Holy Camel Toe!

The beauty of the MindTrap is that people will flock and bend over backward to hook you up with some sweet shit, even your own mother. At least that's how it went in my mind, though I must confess that I really don't posses any tangible superpower. It's more of a pipe dream really. Regardless of how it really played out, I nonetheless ended up with a couple of baggies of some fine-ass Alpaca fiber to play around with. Camelidae.



Ma Roughfisher hooked me up with some Alpaca fiber from a fellow co-worker who also raises Alpacas at the Fossum Family Farm. I didn't even have to beg, she just handed it over from the goodness of her heart. I wish I could be that nice. I received a variety of colors from two breeds of Alpaca, Suri and Huacaya. The Suri contains a bunch of fine strands of silky hair, much like mohair or angora. This is similar to the llama fibers I have, but much finer. The Huacaya contains a dense lot of fine crimped hairs. This holds the real appeal to me. Much like the advantages of crimped Angelina, the Huacaya fibers will add body to any nymph dubbing, as well as add a bit of depth and dimension to a spectral blend. The fibers almost remind me of Enrico Puglisi fibers, so I bet they could also be put to great use for baitfish patterns.





Alpaca fiber contains no lanolin, thus does not repel water; a feature great for nymph bodies. The lack of lanolin will easily allow the fiber to take a dye. I would like to experiment with some reds, blues and yellows for constructing spectral dubbing blends. Perhaps this could make a good seal substitute. Only time will tell. Too many ideas, not enough time.

Thanks Ma.