Cabela's Squirrel Dubbing Box

[DGC]

I bought this 12-compartment dubbing box with cc points a while back and wasn't tying much at the time. Been on a bit of binge lately hence this review.

I ordinarily cut the back fur from the squirrel skin and blend my own dubbing, and that is fine to a point. My hope with this dubbing box was to have very spiky natural squirrel dubbing in a variety of colors for thoraxes on nymphs and collars on certain dries.

I was disappointed that the dubbing here is no more spiky or buggy than run of the mill hare's ear dubbing and in fact that would be an improvement. These dubbings have a blend of some sparkly material, a bit of squirrel and what appears to be sheared rabbit, with the rabbit being the main ingredient.

It doesn't mention it on the Cabela's site, but this is Davy Wotton SLF Squirrel Dubbing, at least that is what it says on the box.

The product is in the list of options in the link below:

Cabelas Dubbing Boxes

 

[lv2nymph]

At the Lancaster show I was looking at "SLF squirrel spikey dubbing". It didn't have Davy W. on it and I don't recall it having anything of a sparkle in it. It looked really spikey to me, I've been looking for the same thing you have been. This might be something different? I was a good boy and restrained from buying any (need new waders).

 

[DGC]

Hmm, maybe they put the wrong dubbing in my box. That's why you buy from a shop I guess, but shops around here are non-existent.

 

[midnightangler]

I have a bunch of the SLF squirrel dubbing, and it is indeed spikier than normal dubbing. I actually love it and use it almost exclusively for tying nymphs. I bought all of mine from TCO in state college. I'm picky about materials and don't like to buy this kind of thing over the internet unless I have to. There is too much variability in fly-tying materials to not see them in person.

 

[lv2nymph]

I agree about the touchy feely first with materials, unless you're buying something you already have had before and know what it is. Dgc,Bummer about the shops.

 

[DGC]

I guess this may have been a one-off. Oh well.

 

[sandfly]

You should try real English hare's ear dubbing very spiky..

 

[nfrechet]

if its unusable to you, send it off to me!

 

[blueheron]

It probably defeats the purpose but you'll have to add guard hairs yourself.

 

[afishinado]

blueheron wrote:
It probably defeats the purpose but you'll have to add guard hairs yourself.

I find most of the dubbing mixes too homogenized with respect to color (most insects are not monochromatic) and also texture (most nymphs have gills flaring out) so I'm kinda fussy about my dubbing. I usually mix my own using natural furs, sometimes mixing with synthetics. I come up with some spiky disheveled messes....which I love and most times the fish do too.

 

[mike_richardson]

Thanks for the input. I figured it would be mixed or cutdown. I love my squirrel dubbing supplier, Marlin 17 hmr.

 

[DGC]

sandfly wrote:

You should try real English hare's ear dubbing very spiky..

Seal fur, North Country freestones, now English hare. Getting time to organize a UK jam. Well, not this year, but some day.

All, thanks for the input.

 

[eunanhendron]

If you want spiky, awesome possum is the way to go

 

[lv2nymph]

You got me thinking about this and I picked some up from
ffp, it does have a small amount of sparkle in it but not really enough that could be seen through the package.It's also the same color as the hairs ( didn't pull it out at the show). It also has bunny in it but the ratio of that and the squirrel seems pretty even. I know without some sort of other medium in with the squirrel it's tough to get on the thread without quite a bit of it falling off. Yes wax fixes this, but I don't use it much. Each kind of dubbing has it's own pro's and con's, probably why I've got so much of it. :roll:

 

[DGC]

lv2nymph, thanks for the reverse engineer. I'd say one out of 12 of mine have that much squirrel, and most far less. The silver lining is I never considered Sandfly's genuine English hare before and that in itself may be worth it.