What materials are you tying with?

clarkman

clarkman

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Outside of my standard bucktail/saddle hackle/flash, I recently grabbed some flash n slinky fiber to play around with. I've never used it, but have heard it's a little lighter than SF, which is appealing for body work. I also recently put in an order for a half dozen new colors of titan dubbing from nightmare musky flies. I absolutely love that stuff for dubbed heads (although, I have used it for a few winter steelhead flies as well).
 
I’ve gotta give the nod to the Titan dubbing. Really good for larger flies but I could see it used for winging and for intruder style flies with it’s length. I’m also digging hair spinning . I just realized that, according to Kelly Gallup the hair I have is garbage. Not right for a proper spin.
Ha!! I think I bought it from him 🤣
I’m still working the buck tail (fun stuff) but will be switching to some smaller stuff as spring develops. Wanting to tie flies for bass as well
 
I just got my order of titan dubbing. Will be playing around with that.

Will be some rubber and foam in my near future as well - time to tie up some poppers.
 
Possum hair, a chunk of micro rabbit strip, marabou, and guinea on a flexitube pretty much sums it up for me.
 
Polar Reflector Flash and Palmer Chenille.
Have used a lot of both lately.
SF
 
A metal bead, marabou and WB hackles... at one time we called them saddle hackles.
 
I strive to be minimalist with my fly tying, these days, so I rarely play around with new materials. There are two notable things that I have been using a lot, over the last couple of years, to good effect.

1. Grizzly hen hackle. I use this on any subsurface fly that calls for hackle; wooly buggers, soft hackle nymphs, etc. It seems to fish better than saddle hackle, CDC, partridge and all the other things I used in the past. I often trim off one side of the feather, to make it more sparse. A brown wooly bugger, with grizzly hen hackle, is my "one" fly; I don't think I have ever not caught a fish on this fly. I avoid using it, unless I am desperate, because it feels like cheating now.

2. Custom rabbit dubbing blend, consisting of equal parts black, white, brown and olive. I mostly tight line nymphs, which means I need every pattern in 2-3 different weights. If I had 2-3 weights and 2-3 colors of every fly, I would never leave the vise and go fishing. Color is far less important than weight, so I've tried to find ways to tie every fly in just one color. Mixing up my own blend, containing all the common colors, seems to work for me.
 
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Inverted tungsten beads, barbless scud hooks, crystal flash, "BR" wire, marabou, anticipatory hope.....................;)
 
I have a N Saskatchewan trip coming up in June so tying new-to-me pike rigs w predator tails on tubes. Cutting/shaping foam underbodies for bulk and (hopefully) neutral buoyancy so the head doesn't sink. Haven't finished the actual tube flies yet - bucktail, flash, and nyat for those.
Also new material to me - FTD Shadow flash that looks like it will be good in Candys and other SW patterns. Also new-to-me Cascade Crest faux fox spun in brushes for streamers. Some really nice bright colors in that material.
Pike rig.jpg
 
What are people liking in brushes,
I’ve only bought a couple to see if I liked them, and it turns out I do. The problem being, I find they’re pretty expensive. I was thinking of buying a bunch of FTD materials and experimenting making my own. Anyone doing that? I’d obviously need to build a table but that shouldn’t be an issue
 
mcswny said:
What are people liking in brushes,
I’ve only bought a couple to see if I liked them, and it turns out I do. The problem being, I find they’re pretty expensive. I was thinking of buying a bunch of FTD materials and experimenting making my own. Anyone doing that? I’d obviously need to build a table but that shouldn’t be an issue
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I build all my own brushes, cause yeah, they are way too expensive to buy. I "built" a table, for free with stuff I had around my house (1.5 foot long 2x4, a couple skinny nails, and a couple short wood screws).

You can easily copy most of the EP brushes with materials only from FTD, which are SUPER cheap. And then you can get creative to make your own that suits your needs.

I really enjoy making them, and once you get it down it only takes a couple minutes, basically trimming the materials and placing them. The spin part takes 30 seconds.
 
James St. Clair said:
I build all my own brushes, cause yeah, they are way too expensive to buy. I "built" a table, for free with stuff I had around my house (1.5 foot long 2x4, a couple skinny nails, and a couple short wood screws).

You can easily copy most of the EP brushes with materials only from FTD, which are SUPER cheap. And then you can get creative to make your own that suits your needs.

I really enjoy making them, and once you get it down it only takes a couple minutes, basically trimming the materials and placing them. The spin part takes 30 seconds.
Click to expand...
Sounds like what my plan was!
 
I am still using materials from 30 years ago. Once they are used up I will buy some modern materials in a purple color.
 
James St. Clair said:
I build all my own brushes, cause yeah, they are way too expensive to buy. I "built" a table, for free with stuff I had around my house (1.5 foot long 2x4, a couple skinny nails, and a couple short wood screws).

You can easily copy most of the EP brushes with materials only from FTD, which are SUPER cheap. And then you can get creative to make your own that suits your needs.

I really enjoy making them, and once you get it down it only takes a couple minutes, basically trimming the materials and placing them. The spin part takes 30 seconds.
Click to expand...


Same story here only I use the Stonfo dubbing brush device.

I really enjoy experimenting with different brushes. Go spend about 40 bucks at FTD and you can make brushes for the rest of your life. Don't forget to grab some baby bug legs or whatever they call their tiny rubber legs. They add a sweet dynamic to many brushes.
 
I should make some brushes someday.
I personally find the ones I buy to be to full or bulky for some of the stuff I like to tie.
I just end up trimming off one side so they are more like some of the other materials I like to use.
It basically makes the brush like the polar reflector flash or palmer chenille I mentioned early, with material only on one side.
SF
 
Nick Clayton said:
Same story here only I use the Stonfo dubbing brush device.

I really enjoy experimenting with different brushes. Go spend about 40 bucks at FTD and you can make brushes for the rest of your life. Don't forget to grab some baby bug legs or whatever they call their tiny rubber legs. They add a sweet dynamic to many brushes.
Click to expand...

Good tip on the legs.
I think his Kraken dubbing has legs built in?
 
mcswny said:
Good tip on the legs.
I think his Kraken dubbing has legs built in?
Click to expand...

Yep it does. I believe he has a few different dubbings that have legs in them.

I love FTD so much. So many cool materials, and watching a dump truck back up to my porch to offload a hundred dollar order of materials makes me feel like a king.

If you tie saltwater stuff at all his Northern Lights flash is awesome.
 
Stonedfish said:
I should make some brushes someday.
I personally find the ones I buy to be to full or bulky for some of the stuff I like to tie.
I just end up trimming off one side so they are more like some of the other materials I like to use.
It basically makes the brush like the polar reflector flash or palmer chenille I mentioned early, with material only on one side.
SF
Click to expand...

Another nice thing about making your own, you can make them as sparse or as full as you want.

Here is a pic of my db table and a brush I made from it...with, as @Nick Clayton mentioned, the micro bug legs. 0517171150.jpg

Edited to add the fly I tied from the brush, and a bass that ate it.
0517171019a.jpg
0513171612a.jpg
 
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