Question about dubbing under biot bodies

[epskinner 0]

Hi Everyone,

I've started tying some flies with turkey and goose biot bodies. I remember seeing an article somewhere about putting some dubbing on the body, then wrapping the biot over it. So I have a couple of questions.

 

1. Has anyone else heard of this or am I hallucinating? If it does exist, do you know where I can find it? It's driving me nuts but I admit that's a short trip.

 

2. If you have tried this, do you recommend it? What do you see as the positives and negatives?

 

Thanks in advance,

Eric

In the scenic Hudson River Valley

[Guest]

SURE

You can use a biot as a ribbing with the dubbing as a base this technique makes a great looking segmented body

 

OSD

[Flytyer-1 0]

Obviously, an underbody, whatever the material, will give a "fatter" body, as opposed to wrapping the biot on the hook shank or on a single layer of thread. It depends on the effect you are trying to achieve. Using the biot as a "rib", which I have never done (but an interesting idea!), would give a very different appearance to the body-compared to touching turns of the biot.

Best-

Stack Scoville

[mgj 0]

I think the rib mentioned was dependant upon the biot being tied notch up or notch down.

 

 

mgj

[nightfish 0]

Yes, you can do it. Sorry, I don't have a link, but it is quite common around the intermountain west when trying to match fat green drakes. Dub a tapered body, a little slimmer than you want the finished fly to be, then wrap the biot in touching turns just like you would normally do. You'll need turkey biots for this, since goose isn't normally long enough. I've found that the longest biots come from the middle section of the feather. If you buy the full feather, the traditionally used biots are on the slimmer side, but the fibers from the broad side work just as well, and probably better for your application (much longer).

 

In addition, I tie some drakes with a tail & underbody of deer hair. Tie in a small clump of deer for the tail, but don't trim the butts or tie them down tight. Tie in the biot at the tail attachment point, then advance the thread up to the thorax area, holding the hair & biot out of the way. Now secure the butts, & clip excess. Wrap the biot over the hair, & secure it at the thorax area. **For a more durable fly, coat the hair with superglue or head cement before wrapping the biot**

The body should taper naturally, and the securing point will be covered by dubbing to maintain the profile. I really like this method on bigger hackle-stackers.

[Bamboo 0]

 

Like others have said, it's a good technique for fattening up the body where needed. I primarily use this method to establish the correct taper with (dubbing slightly lighter than the biot) then just wind the biot over that.

 

Bamboo