Mole Dubbing Substitute?

[Randyflycaster]

I just ordered on ebay some black and brown mole skins. (Two skins of each.) How should I bleach one brown and one black skin, just put them in a solution of water and bleach?

Randy

[Old Hat]

In my opinion there isn't a good substitute for the length and sheen that mole provides. Color wise you can use muskrat, beaver, mink, otter. But it just doesn't substitute well.

Bob Marriot's
http://www.blue-ribbon-flies.com/shop/mole_skins/

Great Feathers
http://greatfeathers.com/specialty/veni ... niard.aspx

[narcodog]

I just ordered on ebay some black and brown mole skins. (Two skins of each.) How should I bleach one brown and one black skin, just put them in a solution of water and bleach?

Randy

If you want to bleach them, let me give you a hint. Take the skins to a hair dresser and ask then to bleach them. I did that with some Aussy Possum. They did a great job and charged me nothing.

[letumgo]

Now that is a useful tip! Thanks Bob.

[Donald Nicolson]

Mole is one of the best dubbings for small wet or dry flies.
Over here mole skins are cheap and easily available.
Natural Mole is a darkish grey dun on the skin and lightens slightly when scraped off the skin.
http://www.cookshill-flytying.co.uk/
I can reccommend Cookshill as a source for many of the less available materials outwith the UK.

[William Anderson]

Hey all, I wanted to jump in on this, sorry for the delay. This is a good question considering all the confirmed dubaholics from previous posts.

Mole is easy to find and I can't imagine a decent substitute. Muskrat underfur and water vole (wish I could get my hands on the real deal) are great but mole has such a fine soft fiber it's the easiest to work with and achieves an amazing result. Absolutely one of my favorites. I'm glad to see all the resources listed, even in the various colors. I would order from Jim Slattery, let him know what you need. Another option is Joe Fox at Dette's fly shop. He gets stacks of natural and bleached skins.

I keep a skin or parts of one within reach often. Like Bill, I usually just pluck it from the skin, it comes off easily enough or just lay your scissors against the hide and snipe a bit. A tiny bit goes a long way. Something I fooled around with recently is actually getting a shorter fiber by cutting the fur about half length from the hide. I was trying to get a faint, whisper of a dubbing for pre spun bodies. Also, I have taken to chopping and blending 3-4 of the different mole colors for very subtle spectral effects. I will have to scan and post some of the bodies.

One of my all time favorites is a 50/50 blend of natural mole and beaver, both from the hide. It's a nice pairing, a little longer staple, more kink, and a sheen found on the beaver that is more pronounced than the mole. I have a lot of photographing and posting to do, but the use of mole in spiders and flymphs is of real interest to me.

I usually end up with shorter and finer bodies spun with mole for smaller BWO or Paralept patterns, or generally attractive, lively bodies in #16 or #14, but these show the full length of the mole fiber when spun perpendicular to the thread before spinning. I'll have to scan and post a couple cards that are ⅓ this size for comparison.



Great info in this thread. Thanks for sharing everyone.

w

[Kelly L.]

I have two colors of mole, brown, and black. I did not know they came in dyed colors. I like to use mole for certain patterns. The colored ones are tempting. I do have a small piece of beaver. I love beaver, wish I had more. I have not mixed just the two together, now that is a great idea.