Wire Brush flies ...

[ditz2 0]

Thanks Kirk......I have done both when doing dubbing loops with craft fur depending on how long I want the hair. I have never done dubbing loops with rabbit. I do like the idea of brushes with rabbit so you don't have the weight of the wet hide.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Yes, it is nice, I hate that water logged tanned rabbit strip - one reason I don't use long rabbit strip zonkers on my flies. When making a brush though, you really want long rabbit hair as the twisting takes up some of the fiber length. You should try rabbit in a dubbing loop for a nymph/leech body.

 

These bodies are rabbit in a dubbing loop with a little angel hair flash fibers mixed in.

 

[ditz2 0]

I have been experimenting with small leaches. I had not thought of rabbit fur in a dubbing loop. Thanks for the ideer. I will give it a try today.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Stu Thompson of Canada has a great leech he makes called the DDH Leech. It has a marabou tail and body of loop dubbed rabbit hair with DDH holographic tinsel, which is very fine like Angel Hair tinsel. He makes a point of doing a few extra wraps of the rabbit dubbing loop at the head just behind the eyes saying that with the head being a little larger diameter than the body, the water movement over the larger head sends waves down into the marabou tail making it undulate a little more...fly tiers...

[AndrewP 0]

Got one last one I did with just EP Dubbing Brush w/Tarantula legs. Used a little red estaz for gills, and tied again on a bass hook.

 

 

 

I'm using two pieces if wire brush, tied in on either side at the eye. Then back at the hook bend, I criss-cross the pieces, come out the back and then twist both pieces of wire brush together near the tail. I think it turns out pretty well.

 

 

AP

[ditz2 0]

Kirk....I am trying to get a real small leech. Size 10 or 12. Maybe an inch long. I tied a few with rabbit cut off of a zonker. I actually found that the fur put into the dubbing loop to work the best for me. I tried to put it in close to the hair butts which I found to be a pain and it just did not look as good as the balanced method. I don't know if the fish will like it but I thought it looked pretty good. we will see. The only weight I added was some .015 lead wire tied in along the top of the shank. Should be enough just to make sure it sinks well.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Ditz, especially for those sizes, the dubbing loop works best. It would be hell wrapping a zonker on that size hook. No pictures?

[ditz2 0]

I don't usually post my ugly flies but since you asked.....Sorry, I did not know it was so out of focus and yes the macro function was on. I have also been working on some small thunder creek stuff. These are for the small creeks that I fish around here. Fish are generally quite small but there are some larger ones rarely. I have never seen any suckers but yesterday I saw a herd of them of around 8 with the largest being maybe 3 or 4#. Two of them were mottled brown and black. I have never seen any like that before.

 

The small leeches....the one on top used the rabbit fur balanced in the dubbing loop and the bottom one had the fur spun with the buts close to the thread. I think I will do some in solid colors in black and in olive. I will also try some bead chain for weight as well as small lead. There is quite a bit of current right now.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Cool Ditz.

With Macro function, you still have to hold the camera still - hahaha. It helps to brace yourself and make sure you depress the shutter release button halfway and wait for the focus recognition to light up and/or beep. Some folks even use a cheapo table top tri-pod and use the self-timer function to release the shutter.

Anyway. Remember too, you can mix different color rabbit hair on top of each other and when spun will mix and blend nicely. Also, I like using a toothbrush sized wire brush to brush out rabbit dubbed bodies and a wire toothed dog brush to brush out longer fiber dubbed flies.

 

Kirk

[Piker20 0]

I'm late looking at this thread but love the wire rabbit patterns. Can imagine some terrific salmon patterns along the lines of these.

[ditz2 0]

Kirk....I didn't want to dig out the Cannon and do a special set up. I have not historically taken or posted pics of my flies. I do under stand the ole trigger squeeze thing. I have messed with cameras since the mid 60's. Actually I am a much better photographer than I am a fly tier. Sorry these pics don't show that. I just used our old Sonny point and shoot. It does a great job usually. If I was to do a better job I would have used a larger format and then cropped it. ....Yea, I do intend to do some other stuff with these small 'leeches'. I also want to blend some orange, olive, and black. Heavy on the black. I am just not sure how to get them blended and keep them all in register before placing them in the dubbing loop. Blending is a new action for me. I think doing it on a dubbing board would be the easiest method but that will not work for such small flies.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

Damn Ditz!, break out the Cannon!

 

Blended rabbit, it works fine in the dubbing loop using any of the popular methods from air blasted into a closed container - with relief holes of course - to water. However, when twisting materials, they tend to blend pretty good during the twisting process.

When I use two colors, I lay down the base color and put wisps of hair of the other color right on top, this can be done on your desk top without the ceiling fan on of course. So, cut your black rabbit off the hide, lay it on your table the thickness you want. Then cut a clump of your orange and olive and pick some little clumps and kind of spread them in your hand keeping lined up so that it is a thin veil, place on top of your line of black fur and repeat. When you get your orange thinly spread across the top of your black, lift up the row or part of it and place in your waxed dubbing loop. When you spin the loop, all those fibers will blend nicely.

Easier done than explained.

[wschmitt3 0]

That first fly you have there andrew is awesome. Please try to remember the name of the company you got that rabbit brush from.

[ditz2 0]

Thanks Kirk, I will give that a feeble try

[AndrewP 0]

That first fly you have there andrew is awesome. Please try to remember the name of the company you got that rabbit brush from.

 

Montana Fly Company: http://www.montanafly.com/ Did not see it on their website, but that is the packaging I have when I got it from my local fly shop ....

 

AP