COVID Tenkara Fly Tying
There’s been a lot of buzz around Vicuña dubbing lately and I was lucky enough to get a box from DRAGONTAILtenkara. I’ve probably got hundreds of packages of dubbing dating back 20+ years, but I can tell you, I really like this stuff.
First of all, it’s hand-dyed alpaca wool so it’s scraggly, but still easy to dub (unlike Angora oa SLF). You don’t have to use a loop or dubbing wax. You can just twist dub it and it stays together but still looks buggy.
Second of all, the colors are stellar. They were designed by David West Beale of Tenkara Tales. David is a tour de force in the tenkara community so you can bet he’s put a lot of thought into the colors in the kit. And everything is hand-dyed so you know it’s of the best quality.
I didn’t think about this at first, but the box the dubbing comes in would serve as a fly box when empty. You’d have to tie a LOT of flies to empty it out, but still … I always love the concept of up-cycling and recycling.
I’ve only had a little while to play with this dubbing, but I’ve got a lot of ideas for it. As fall and winter approach, I can see some great applications for heavier tenkara flies and David’s colors seem perfect for the streams I fish here in Colorado (really anywhere in the country) If you’re in the U.S. get yours here. If you’re in Europe, get yours here. You will not regret the purchase. You’ll get hundreds of flies out of the box and possibly thousands of ideas.
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Noticed this talked about too.
It’s nice to read a new post by the way. Welcome back and thank you.
Making a mental note to order with my next batch of Moonlit hooks!
Thanks for the shout out Jason, looking forward to seeing your future creations!
Hi Jeff, it’s really premium stuff. Definitely worth trying. I don’t use dubbing in my flies much anymore but has me excited to get back into it.
My Favorites are the Plum and Rock colors from this dubbing collection.
Hi Brent, I actually had the idea to actually blend some of the colors. What do you think about that?
I’m going to try it.
I’ve got about a $100 order ready for DRAGONtail.
I bought a Stonfo Creative Dubbing Kit so I can make dubbing loops from natural yarn.
I found some interesting non-Jamieson natural wool/silk yarns that I want to try in several colors.
Here’s just one line… https://www.lovecrafts.com/en-us/p/fyberspates-cumulus
The other day I had the idea to look for natural wool sweaters at thrift stores and unravel the wool.
I’m targeting mostly smallmouth bass via the DRAGONtail HELLbender or Tenkara USA Amago — trout and panfish only occationally.
So my dubbing and yarn needs may be different that most other folks.
I think I can tie an all Jamieson Spindrift Wooly Bugger via the Stonfo Kit — we’ll see!
The Vicuña Dubbing should work great for the various large Oni-type kebari that I tie.
That’s a nice color assortment. I may have to order some. Truth be told I don’t think that I have ever tied any tenkara flies with dubbed bodies.
Hi David, I normally don’t either but this dubbing has given me some ideas. Articles to come …