Synthetic or Natural?

[1st.YearTyer 0]

Do you use synthetic dubbing for nymphs or just natural fur?

[Druce 0]

well, as a rule of thumb I like to use naturals, I find synthetics do not get a natural look. But that's just a personal look into it, even the guy from pike fly fishing articles seems to praise naturals over synthetics. You just cant copy the life like movement of nature. If you have a cat than bam my friend you have got dubbing. Im sure you know a guy (family, co-worker, ext) who hunts and wouldnt mind giving you his garbage (aka. an entire bag of turkey feathers from wing, tail and chest, or some moose/deer/elk) i know thats not fur but hey you get the idea. Ill let you in on a little secret of mine, if you stick around dog parks long enough and talk to some people, they wouldnt mind you brushing there dog in the field, they probably hate doing it as its messy and time consuming, just explain that you want the fur for fly tying and they will probably say "holy s***, this pups got a grocery bag full for ya, heres the brush" or you can take my anti social approach and go retrieve the left behind hair after dark while your girlfriend holds the flash light. so my answer is natural, plus the little guard hairs in natural fur make such good messy legs Anyways the sun is coming up and the bluegill await my little nymph on the water, good luck to you.

 

Druce

[flytire 0]

i have been using "free range" wet fly dubbing from singlebarb.com and it combines a little of both. great dubbing!

[utyer 0]

I blend all my own nymph dubbing, and I start with natural fur or hair of some kind, then mix in a little flash material like ice dub, or chopped wing n flash. Many have some kind of yarn in addition to the furs, and that yarn could be either natural wool, or a synthetic.

 

Dry fly dubbing for me is mostly from synthetics.

 

I collect hair from all my friends dogs, there are some great uses for dog fur, and they love to be brushed out.

[1st.YearTyer 0]

I don't know about using dog fur,but again UTYER your the man with the answer.I ALSO blend what few colors I have along with some clear UV sparkle stuff.I found a great deal on a large assortment of colors but it is all synthetic.Using natural fur appeals to me a lot more but I was just wondering what the real fly-tyers were doing for their nymphs.I'm gonna go out today and pick up a bag of RED and BLACK hareline and that should cover me for any color I wanna come up with.

[perchjerker 0]

Hair from the long haired, soft coated breeds of dogs can make fantastic dubbing. The grey hair from a Siberian Husky makes a great nymph. The so called 'silver' color of some breeds (Schnauzers) makes a good substitute for muskrat in an Adams dry fly; as does the fur from a Norwegian (house) rat.

 

perchjerker

[Markbob 0]

So far I just use natural and natural with flash in it for trout stuff but I use some really cool synthetics for some saltwater shrimp patterns that I tie.

[mybadhabit 0]

Don't leave out the cats, I've got several and have used many of them for dubbing on nymphs and they come out great, I also have a deal with a wild game processing place for pieces of hides that just get thrown out and buck tails, I have to dumpster dive for them, but this year I won't have to pay for any tails or hides that I want, and I should be able to get some exotics along with it.

 

Not sure bout the diving part, never done it before, so it should be kinda interesting. If you live in a metro area, look for a game processing place, they should be able to give you, or ignore when you get hides and so on for processing, and any taxidermy shop in your area always has scraps that they are willing to give away or sell for minimal cost. And hunting season is just around the corner.

 

Good luck

 

Blane

[JSzymczyk 0]

I, for one, absolutely LOVE synthetics!!

 

If I had to use dog hair or cat hair for dubbing, I would die. Literally, go into anaphylactic shock and die, I'm super-allergic to dogs, almost as bad to cats, and somewhat to everything else with fur. When I did a lot of coyote hunting, I had to wear extra long field dressing gloves, a particulate mask, and goggles when skinning them out. I get asthma symptoms and hives when I'm around people who own dogs... Hareline dubbin with rabbit fur makes my sinuses pour snot, my eyes swell, and my chest tighten up with asthma. Thank God not too much to bucktails or deer hair!

[utyer 0]

J,

 

Sounds like you couldn't tie without synthetics, good thing there are plenty of them out there.

[ditz2 0]

I use both. Whatever I have on hand that fills my "need". For some things I prefer natural and other things I prefer synthetic so my vote is a definite maybe.

[perchjerker 0]

mybadhabit:

 

Before you 'jump in', make sure that a homeless person is not sleeping in it.

 

perchjerker