Wire Brush flies ...

[AndrewP 0]

I had some inspiration at the vice and I think I've come up with a couple super-simple patterns that use wire brush.

 

I know some on this forum create their own wire brushes, but I don't have the equipment to do so. I've just gone and purchased a couple of types of the EP Fiber brushes -- usually EP Fiber and sometimes flash or small rubber legs -- twisted up in a small fine wire. I also found another company 9sorry Can't remember the name) that twists up rabbit fur (without hide of course).

 

Anyway, here is what I've come up with. The first is a minnow pattern tied up using the wire rabbit. I tied it on a bass hook (1/0) bendback style.

 

 

 

The second fly is using some EP Fiber brush with Tarantula Legs (rubber). I was going for a shrimpy look .....

 

 

 

The thin wire can be bent so that the materials can either hide or expose the hook.

 

Of course this makes tying the fly very simple. For the minnow, just one piece of rabbit wire. For the shrimp, two pieces that I connected (wrapped) together behind the hook. Then add eyes,, maybe a body wrap if you want, and done.

 

Have not tried them out on fish just yet, but hope to soon.

 

 

AP

[artimus001 0]

wire brush a.k.a. dubbing brush

 

i really like tying with dubbing brushes. easy to make, and great to work with.

[Betty 0]

Here is a EP wire brush spearing fly. Tail is white bucktail, then the EP brush palmered to the eye. I cut a flat surface on top and tyed in chartruse bucktail just past the tail finishing off with tented grizzly hackle and holographic eye. Natural materials for action with the bright synthetics for flash.

[Mudskimmer 0]

That spearing looks fantastic.

[ditz2 0]

Very nice Betty

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Nice. Good thing about that rabbit one is you don't have to deal with the waterlogged tanned hide but get the nice flowing rabbit hair.

 

Kirk

[jrp3 0]

I am curious how to get the tarantula legs and the EP fibers together so nicely. Could you elaborate?

[AndrewP 0]

I am curious how to get the tarantula legs and the EP fibers together so nicely. Could you elaborate?

 

Purchased (from Enrico), not hand-made. Kirk and others have done similar things with their own designs and type of materials used in the brushes they made for themselves.

 

I know of lots of patterns where you palmer the brush around a hook shank; what I was trying out was certain patterns/looks where the brush became the body without palmering.

 

AP

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

JRP, when I have done the brushes as a tail/body. I first put a drop of glue on the cut end of the wire brush from keeping the wire from loosening at the end and loosing fibers from the end although in lieu of gluing, the wire could probably be bent - not sure if Andrew does that or not with the EP brushes but I have to with my homemade dubbing brushes.

A wire dog brush is very handy for combing back the materials on the brush to get them flowing back but the water will do the same.

 

Here is my Foxy Glider done with a Faux Fox dubbing brush from Cascade Crest Tools. The Faux Fox absorbs water and sinks much like natural furs. The tail is a brush tied in as a tail and the chartreuse beard is a brush tied in at the hook eye then pulled around the hook bend under the tail tie in point and brought back to the hook eye and tied off. Dubbing brushes are pretty versatile while at the same time being limiting for some applications.

[jrp3 0]

Thanks for the reply and the videos. I have trip to Ft. Lauderdale planned for May. I hope to do surf fishing with my 8wt and maybe hire a guide to put us on whatever will bite.

[Betty 0]

Really nice fly

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Thanks Betty. Has really good side to side gliding action too. Smaller foam spider body head allows to sink a little faster, larger one keeps it on the surface. Have caught redfish and bass on it.

[ditz2 0]

Hey Kirk...I have been lazy and not yet made up a dubbing brush machine like yours but I do have a question. When you use the rabbit fur in a brush do you lay it across the wire do you center the hair on the wire or do you lay the hair on the wire close to the base of the hair so the hair is longer in the finished brush?

[Henrik Thomsen (DK) 0]

There is a model of these brushes called fur strings, that I use quite a lot for head on pike flies.

It is basically just a wire twisted with craft fur.

 

/H

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Ditz, I don't do rabbit much but the couple times I've done it, yes, I lay the butt ends on the wire. When you twist it, you get a cylindrical rabbit strip with a wire down the center. Same thing for a dubbing loop, which I do use rabbit in more often than making a brush. Same with with fox and coon hair, lay butts across the wire.