Rothrock's fly dubbings

[3oh4]

Been doing some research as always... what material does Rothrock use in most of his nymphs? It looks so much buggier than the nymphs I churn out. Is it a mix? Rabbit? Etc. thanks!

 

[NewSal]

If your on facebook just send him a message, I've gotten a ton of good info from the prominent guys in flyfishing this way.

 

[NewSal]

But sense we are on the topic of buggy nymphs, I know one of my new favorites for really buggy nymphs is pine squirrel.

 

[eunanhendron]

OldLefty might chime in here....

 

[MKern]

He triple layers many of his nymphs (forward, backward and forward again) with fairly thin dubbing.
Then he often picks out the dubbing with a T-needle; forming segments and gills.

I believe years ago he was fond of regular old haretron dubbing.

 

[3oh4]

So picking it is really the key.

 

[fisherboy3]

If you get a small piece of velcro, after you tie your nymphs rub the velcro on the dubbing. Will pick it right out way better than a dubbing needle. I do this on my stonefly nymphs which I used haretron dubbing on.

 

[MKern]

The way Dave does it to represent gills or, if i'm assuming you were looking at his cress fly, he definitely does it with a T-needle picking out the the sides. This gives his cress bug that very flat profile.

For general bugginess, hooked-sided velcro on a Popsicle stick is a good way to rough-up some dubbing.

 

[OldLefty]

O.K., here goes.

First, thank you very much for the interest in my flies.

I use nothing but hareline and haretron dubbing. Years ago I decided to use nothing but materials any fly tyer can access. Second, rabbit fur is sufficiently stiff that it retains its integrity but supple enough to be moved by the water to suggest gills on nymphs

The "bugginess" you refer to is how I manipulate the material to suggest gills on various nymphs; however, its application goes beyond this to tying cress bugs and even dragonfly nymphs. Let's just say that the technique is quite versatile.

For most nymphs I apply 2 layers of dubbing. It is critical to apply the dubbing to the thread as tight as possible and wind the dubbing as tightly as possible as the abdomen is formed. Next comes the ribbing which holds the dubbing in place. I only want the "bugginess" on the sides of the nymph. The ribbing must be applied very tightly, as well. With a dubbing needle (I find the best is a T pin used in curtain making) run the point up along the sides of the abdomen. DO NOT pick out the dubbing!! You can control how much material is pulled from the sides by how tightly you press against the sides of the body. Once you have the desired density of pulled material you trim it to length. If, after trimming, you have areas more dense than desired you can VERY CAREFULLY remove a tiny bit of material from either the top or the bottom of that small area. The reason everything is applied and wound tightly is so the needle point doesn't catch either the tying thread or the ribbing thread. This is also why I shun using Velcro for this. Velcro can shred my ribbing and possibly my tying thread on my smaller flies.

I do my own blending and I blend only by hand. I do not use a small blender because, contrary to what some say, they chop the fur. I don't want that.

Hope this helps. And, again, thanks for the interest.

Footnote: The next issue of American Angler magazine should have a photo of my Isonychia nymph which is a good example of this.

 

[TYoung]

Here is a link to Dave's fly tiers page. It has photos of some of his nymph patterns.


Fly Tiers Page

 

[OldLefty]

I would hope my ties have improved over time...;-)

 

[3oh4]

Huh how about that for an answer? Thank you sir. Huge fan of hare-tron myself so I actually have a good bit.

 

[RCFetter]

I bookmarked this thread: "Advanced Dubbing Technique"