Conover Muskrat

[letumgo]

Have a safe trip Wayne.

[tie2fish]

Glad you guys like the wax. Ray, that Conover 'rat pattern is truly amazing; please report on its appearance if you ever put it in the water.

[JohnP]

As always, simply stunning. It's hot enough here in Idaho that I have been using a new dubbing technique - sweat dubbing. No need for wax, just run your fingers through the sweat on your face and dub away.

[letumgo]

Funny you should mention that. I read the John Shewy (famous steelhead tier) learned to use sweaty fingers to grasp jungle cock nails, before setting them on the fly. The moisture made the JC nail stick to his thumb and index finger, even when they were not pressed together. Neat trick.

[willowhead]

i got two of John Shewey's flies at the show in Lewiston, Idaho a couple months ago Ray. One framed in an auction, (the official "fly of the show"), and the other he just gave me. i was shocked when he did that. It was really good seeing him again. i've only been able to hang out with him, probably less than a half dozen times ever, but every time it's amazing just to listen to him expound on whatever the subject might be. The guy is an amazing resource of information. At one point during the cocktail hour, before the dinner/auction, he was just dumping feather dying info on everyone.....holy cow does he know his stuff. i've bought materials from him a few times, and his stuff is fantastic. He's addicted to beach vollyball too.....so sometimes he's kinna hard to find.....i don't think he takes a cellphone to the beach.

[letumgo]

If I wasnt getting ready to hit the road (vacation) in a few minutes I would give a long winded account of red dubbing mixed with Hares Ear that produces for me on the Roaring Fork.

Wayne - Can you give us that account, now that you're back from vacation?

[ronr]

bump

[NightWatchman]

CB - I missed your question earlier. The flies above, were tyed by tightly twisting a thin layer of dubbing onto the tying threaded. The dubbing is tapered slightly by adding a little more dubbing towards the front of the body.

Bill (tye2fish) - I received the dubbing wax, in this afternoons mail. I have been playing around with it this evening. I love the consistency and the tackiness. I tyed a couple flies with a touch-dub technique and was amazed how well it works. I just lightly ran the wax along the thread and when I touched a small ball of loose dubbing against the thread, the dubbing grabs hold. I didn't even have to press the dubbing against the thread. I like how the wax makes the thread tacky, without gumming it up with a lot of excess bits of wax. Some tacky waxes are messy, in that respect, but yours works cleanly.

Here is one of the flies I tyed with your wax, over orange tying thread. The body of the fly ends up being nice and fuzzy, with little effort.



Thanks for the tying wax. I can already tell I am going to get a lot of use out to this.

Very nice fly letumgo !