Jim Slattery Demonstrating Leisenring Dubbing Technique

[letumgo]

Here is a link to a new YouTube video I uploaded today. I shot this video footage of Jim Slattery, demonstrating the process of forming a dubbed silk body for a flymph. Jim did his demonstration while we were at his place, during the Flymph Forum gathering earlier this summer. Jim is forming the dubbed body on his pants leg, just like Jim Leisenring used to do it.

Pause the video at different points to read about the detailed tying steps.



Bravo Jim! Sorry it has taken me this long to process the video. The file was HUGE, so it has taken me a while to get it uploaded and then to add the annotations. I've never done this before, so there was quite a bit of learning involved.

Enjoy...

[William Anderson]

Another treasure of a resource and a fun reminder of that night getting to tie with Jim and the gang at the cafe. Thank you for putting this up. Nicely done.

[DOUGSDEN]

Jim,
Excellent video clip! How in the world can you tie without a bobbin? You are demonstrating the old way of tying and I find that fascinating and great to watch! It was good to see you again Jim "in person". Who was that character in the background towards the end of the sequence?
Top notch Ray as always!
Dougsden

[letumgo]

Do you guys see pop-up text while watching the video? I annotated the video, but it does not seem to be working unless I am logged into my YouTube account. I intended to have the annotations visible to everyone. Please let me know if they are appearing correctly.

[Mataura mayfly]

Pop up's work fine down here in the deep South.
Well done to all involved.

[Ruard]

Pop up's work fine down here in the deep South.
Well done to all involved.

For me too, I think it is Bill in the background.


greeting


Ruard

[tie2fish]

Great job, Ray. The pop-up text and the musical soundtrack perfectly compliment your fine camera work.

[gingerdun]

Ray,
This makes it look so simple—both spinning the body on the knee, and making a video.
Great work, and invaluable to now have this video out there on YouTube.
Lance

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Nice to watch Jim tie again. Very well done video, Ray.

[Jim Slattery]

Just saw this. I have to thank you Ray for putting this together.
Unfortunately this technique is not the true Leisenring method. It is a technique, as best I can now recollect, that was shown to me when I first started seriously tying as a sophomore in high school 40 years ago by Roger George, the teacher who oversaw the school Fly Fishing club. As I got older and really studied the AoTWF, and in this case specifically the spun body, I reached in the back crevices of my memory of how I was shown this method and put it up to how I understood what was written in the Art of Tying the Wet Fly. This is the result.
After reading Leisenrings hand written manuscript about this technique I found the method I use to be erroneous. In the manuscript, Leisenring writes that you keep the thumb and index finger in place and you roll the thread at the top of the knee above the index finger 3 or 4 times and then lift the index finger while holding the spun thread taught. The results are same as the dubbing block.
The results of the "modified Leisenring dubbing loop" are a bit different as the dubbing is somewhat compressed by the application of friction as you roll the loop on the pant leg. It tends to form a hollow cylindrical loop yet retains some of the spikiness that can be found in the regular method. When wet and in light you can really see a "glow" as the light bounces off of the dubbing fibers and the under color of the thread. The modified method also uses a little less dubbing than the regular method as the modified technique tends to add "volume" to the dubbing being used.
Jim