Dubbing
Dubbing is perhaps the most traditional method of making a fly body. Dubbing is a mixture of natural or synthetic fibers blended into a loose fur. This fur is twisted onto the tying thread and then wrapped on the hook to form a body.
Dubbing is used in both dry and subsurface patterns. The advantage of dubbing is that there is no tie-in or tie-off point. This means no bulk in those areas. Bodies can be tapered to form natural-looking insect bodies and can be put onto a hook sparser than other materials. This is especially important on small mayfly patterns.
Dubbing comes in different textures. Use a fine dubbing on small flies or when a smooth body is called for. Use coarser dubbings to give a shaggy buggy effect on nymphs and some dry flies. Most natural dubbings contain fine underfur similar to fine dubbings, but they also contain the guard hairs, which will add some the appearance of legs of other extremeness to the fly. Synthetic and natural/synthetic dubbings are also available in a fine/coarse mix.
The trick to dubbing is to apply small amounts of it along a short length of thread, and then pinch and roll the materials with your fingertips onto the thread to form a rope. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to add only small amounts of dubbing to your thread. If you ned to build up a large body, use several layers of dubbing, do not try to get it all on the hook in one step.
Most fly shops sell dubbing wax to help the dubbing fibers stick to the thread, but I rarely use wax for dubbing except for coarse materials such as seal or seal substitutes.
To give your dubbings a buggy look you can rough them up with a dubbing teaser or piece of Velcro hook glued to a Popsicle stick.
You can make your own dubbing by putting fur or cut yarn in a coffee grinder and blending. I will primarily do this to get special colors or large production quantities.
Fine Dubbing. Some common synthetics are Wapsi Superfine, Scintilla Micro-fibre and Fine & Dry. Some of the most common fine natural materials are mink, beaver, muskrat, fox, rabbit, and Australian possum. All of these should be without guard hairs.
Medium Dubbing. Some of natural dubbings in this category are rabbit with guardhairs, hares ear and fox with guard hairs. In synthetics we have Antron blends, Scintilla, Fly Rite, Sparkle Dub, SLF, and Hare-tron (a blend of rabbit and Antron).
Coarse Dubbing. The natural products included squirrel, seal, angora, and buffalo. Pseudo Seal and squirrel/Antron blends are the most common in the synthetics.
Flash Dubbing. The fine mylar dubbings have become very popular for nymphs and baitfish. They are nice when a flashy tapered body is desired. They can also be used as shucks and wings. Some of the common varieties are Flashabou Dubbing, Lite Brite, and Angel Hair. Angel Hair and Lite Brite are available in hanks similar to other flashes, Krystal Dub and Squirrel Brite are natural and flash blends.
Weighted Dubbing. Hareline sells an aluminum dubbing called Quick Descent to take your flies to the bottom quickly. This product comes in several colors and has a moderate amount of flash.
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