dubbing

I have been tying crappie jigs for a while now and have never used dubbing. Can I use the Danville 210 flat waxed for dubbing or do I need something else?Any info you can give is more than I know about it at the present.

I don't think you need dubbing for crappie jigs. Dubbing is mostly used to make bodies for small flies.

There's more info in the jig tying forum on this. Just search that forum for "dubbing".

Well, I'm mostly self taught on the tying stuff, but here is what I do for dubbing on flies. I use pretty much any thread, but have a slice of solid wax that I slide on the thread to coat it before I twist on the dubbing. It helps the dub to stick to the thread, but have no clue if this is right... a small junk tying kit I bought had the wax, and this is what I've always used it for. :D Correct me if I'm wrong anyone...

For the bodies of small flies, lately I have been using peacock herl wrapped on. Has a very cool look and has been working good so far this season. Have learned you have to make sure it is locked in every couple of wraps or has a tendency to unravel once wet.

Small flies is what I want to use it on,sorry, didnt make myself clear on that. I'll check out dubbing in the search feature,
Attica, how do you "lock it " down every couple of wraps ?

I just wrap the peacock 2 or 3 times then wrap my thread over it twice to hold it to the body, wrap the peacock, wrap the thread over it... and keep going till the body is done. You can get way with this with the peacock because the fibers are sparse and you never see the thread. If you do this with chenille, there is a lump every other wrap and doesnt look good.

I posted this a little while back, has a peacock body... got me over 30 keeper gills and 20 keeper crappies so far this year. :cool:

thanks for tht info, btw ,thats a good lookn' bug.

Ok, Attica maybe I messed something....but what size hook is that, and what is all the material that you used? I've been tyin jigs, but wanna start w/ flies now, I have a flyrod I have had for bout 6 months but not been able to go out and use it yet. But plan to soon!

Thanks,
AC

ACSooner - I make these mostly on #8 hooks. I just use cheapy bait holder hooks and bend them so they are not off-set and also smash down the bait barbs on the hook shank.

For tying the fly - The tail is black deer hair, only a couple of hair fibers. I build up the shape of the body with the thread (burgundy sewing thread) then tie in a piece of peacock herl at the back of the fly. Wrap the herl forward. Then tie in a neck hackle feather (rust color) and wrap it for the collar. I over-wrap the hackle a little to make it lay back, then just make a head with the thread and whip finish.

You can weight them as well by wrapping the shank with some led wire before you tie on thread. This color combo has done the best for me with this fly, but you can substitute anything. Check out the "Fly Tying" section on Fly Anglers OnLine for some good patterns.

ATTICA-After I tie on my tail and build up the body. I tie my peacock herl on and use head cement on the body before rapping my peacock herl to body. This method the herl lasts longer fishing it. 35 years tieing flys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ken Jones

ATTICA-After I tie on my tail and build up the body. I tie my peacock herl on and use head cement on the body before rapping my peacock herl to body. This method the herl lasts longer fishing it. 35 years tieing flys.

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Thanks Ken - I actually had a thought to try that not too long ago. It sorta came to me in a discussion on how to make chenille more durable. I learned to do it with chenille a while ago from store bought jigs that were glued in this way. Just never put 2 & 2 together but plan to try this when I restock my gill flies for next spring.

I have done flies using dubbing from size 28 all the way up to 1/0. I definitely wax the thread really well but have found that plumbers wax, the stuff used for toilet bowls works really well and is stickier.

As for peacock, if you take the herl and wrap it around the thread and then tie it in it stays on really well. My absolute favorite trout fly is a peacock herl body with a peacock sword tail. Have put many fish on the bank even after the fish have frayed the herl to the point it looks like a long dead bug. Works better that way most of the time, lol.

I have made some jigs with dubbing before. It was actually the first jig I was able to catch crappie on consistently. I wanted to try it out so messing around I wrapped a hot pink head with some ICE dub in am insect green color with insect green marabou.

As for wax or not I have stopped using it for the most part and like stated before most all the threads we tie jigs and even flies for that matter is prewaxed and if you twist it on sparingly it should be fine in my experience (which is limited) I learned how to avoid the wax mess by some pretty well known tiers in my area so I figured if it works for them then I might as well give it a try and so far so good. Wax definitely is easier if not a necessity when using a dubbing loop but I haven't tried making one without wax.

As for peacock hurl I wrap it around my thread and sometimes hit the thread base with some head cement or super glue before I wrap the body.