Wait A Moment

Warm and sunny, warm and sunny, snow and wind! Don’t like our Catskill weather? Well, you know what to do…

Unsteadied February is almost behind us, and thirty-nine days remain until dry fly nirvana will flirt with my emotions. This final week has shown us a little bit of everything. It seems fitting that February’s farewell should be icy and blustery, for the balance of the week has been quite fair. Two days of fishing, a little warm rain to replenish the rivers, and now the big freeze; but it looks like sixty degrees for Sunday!

I tied a few of my Translucence Series flies last Saturday at Flyfest, and found a few interested guests curious about the silk dubbed creations. As with most of my dry flies, color is important, and the path to hatch matching color is blending.

I was pleased when I discovered that the Kreinik Company was still manufacturing their pure silk dubbing that I carried in my fly shop so many years ago. It takes a bit of patience to acquire (you order from their website but must wait a couple of weeks for one of their dealers to fill your order), but the wait is worth it. Silk dubs so perfectly, as it is finer than the various synthetics, and it has that lovely glow in the water. the color selection available will cover a good deal of the major hatches, particularly when you blend them together to mimic Nature’s impressionistic hues. When you truly need a different color, stranded silk can be separated and cut into short strands, then blended with the dubbing to produce the desired tones. The orangish yellow characteristic of the sulfur mayflies comes to mind.

I have used the same technique for blending fine materials which I used for Antron dubbing thirty years ago. Pull out some of the silk dubbing and separate it into thin veils of material, then take a sharp pair of scissors and cut across the veil at intervals of about one quarter of an inch. You can blend using your fingers, pulling wisps of material apart and recombining them over and over until their colors are thoroughly mixed. The basic electric coffee bean grinder is much faster and better if you blend dubbing on a regular basis, and they are still inexpensive.

If you embark on the path of blending your own hatch matching dubbing, I strongly suggest that you keep notes of the relative amounts of the ingredients used in each blend. That makes it much easier to make a new batch when you need it.

Hopefully, we don’t have too many frigid, windy days remaining before fair weather brings the beginnings of spring fishing, so take advantage of this time to tie the flies you need for the new season.