Caddis Fly Shop: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

Fresh from an enthusiastic reception at the FFF Expo in Albany, Jackson and Jay Nicholas will be at the Caddis Fly on Saturday, April 4 from 10am to 3pm, to demonstrate the art and science of blending custom dubbing colors and textures. Request a custom blend – we’ll mix you up a free sample!

Dubbing, dubbing, dubbing!
Yeah, you know, those cute little packets of fuzzy stuff that we harass around our threads to wind on our fly hooks – dubbing! You can it in find hundreds of colors and a wide range of textures, stuffed into little plastic bags and hung on pegs in fly shops. Of course, the Caddis Fly carries a great selection. Dull and bright hues, fine to coarse textures, fluorescents, sparkly, shaggy, oh-my-gosh – all these terms could be used to describe some of the dubbings you will find at the fly shop.

Why on earth would anyone want to blend their own dubbing when so many ready-made materials are available already?

Reason one, it’s fun.

Reason two, it might allow you to match the hatch by creating a color or texture that no one has thought about.

Reason three, it will allow you to create custom dubbing colors that form the basis of a “signature fly” – the fly that is so effective, so different, and so appealing that it will be copied by others, and maybe even make you famous. If you become engaged in this art, you just might wake up dreaming about creating a series of colors and textures that you won’t find on the racks — blends that haven’t found their way into mass production.

Fly tyers are often tinkerers. They like to mess around with tools, hooks, fly vises, and threads. They are never quite satisfied with simply copying fly patterns in the shops, so they create their own. Blending your own custom dubbing materials is right in line with the creative side of the fly tyer’s brain.

Most of the custom blends we Nicholases create tend to be on the fuzzy side and are especially suited to tying steelhead and salmon flies. We also create dubbing for dry stoneflies, caddis nymphs, and soft hackles. Our custom dubbings make awesome leeches too, and Hareline Dubbin provides a nice selection of pre-blended leech and scud dubbings.

What you’ll need to blend your own
Not much; just a simple coffee grinder (available for about $10) and an assortment of dubbing materials that you want to combine. Here’s a thought – you ought to consider dedicating a grinder to your dubbing adventures; that wad of chartreuse and pink hair won’t look so good floating around in your morning coffee.

Our raw materials
Hareline Dubbin provides all of our raw materials. The Caddis Fly carries virtually all of the materials that we blend together, plus a few we haven’t had time to try yet.

A few pointers
Most of the coarse dubbing materials blend very nicely. Hareline Trilobal, Angora Goat, and a range of rabbit fiber dubbings blend very easily. Many of the Ice Dub materials also blend well, but some blend better than others.

You just might be amazed at the result when you start with a base of Black and Purple Trilobal, add a trace of Chartreuse Rabbit, and finish off with a pinch of Gold Ice Dub. Zowie. This stuff will make your eyes water with anticipation. Now go back and substitute a little Steelie Blue Ice Dub somewhere in the mix. Gimme that coffee grinder! Throw a little Minnow Belly Ice Dub in with some Adams Gray or some Dark Hare’s Ear to add just a hint of sparkle to your trout flies.

A few materials, however, are difficult to blend and you may find yourself with a knotted, lumpy mess in your grinder. Through trial and error, you’ll figure out which materials work well. We have not been successful blending some of the Super Fine materials intended to tie small dry flies with very smooth bodies. You may have success where we have not, though, so don’t be timid about experimenting.

Hope to see you at the Caddis Fly on April 4 10am-3pm! The Nicholas family will be there to show you how we blend our favorite mixtures. Let us create your special requests.

JN & JN

Gamakatsu has been making premium quality hooks since 1955. Made of high quality, High Carbon Steel Gamakatsu hooks are super sharp and consistently perfect out of the box. They are made in thier own facility, which is one of the most technologicaly advanced in the world.  Gamakatsu measures hooks by the sharpness, hardness, and viscosity of the point. Using low quality materials results in points that are weak and not truly sharp. In order to use High Carbon Steel , Gamakatsu developed a unique electronic tempering process which enables hooks to be tempered in a stable condition. As a result, Gamakatsu is able to manufacture consistently high quality, extremely sharp hooks in large quantities.

Gamakatsu’s numbering system.

Going way back to old bronze Mustad and Partridge Hooks we’ve used a numbering system. We learned the numbers because that is just what you did. I am sure they had some sort of system in mind when the 3399a and 94840 were created but I never figured it out, I just memorized the numbers and equated numbers to hook type and style.  Over the years we learned to equate old Mustad numbers with new TMC numbers, 94840 became 100 and 9672 became 5262. Again not really sure what the numbers signified. Gamakatsu explains their numbering system in thier catalog and it really makes sense.

For example S11s-4L2H breaks down like this:

First letter=style of bend (S) is sproat, P=perfect C=curved  B=Bend L=Limerick T=Tapered R=Retainer

Second is the Model Number 11 is Gamakatsu’s model number for the given hook

Third Letter refers to the Eye Style, S=straight, U=up, V=vertical

Fourth in the code is the length of the hook L=Long, S=Short in the examples case we have a 4x long hook shank 

Fifth and finally possible code is the hooks strength H=hard/strong, F=fine, for our example we have 2x strong.

Not all Gamakatsu hooks use the entire code, they have used simpler terms for hooks with few variables and make some assumtions on more standard hooks. For example the C14S, our most popular glo bug hook, C=Curved 14=Model number and S=Straight eye, for the S10a fantastic dry fly hook S=Sproat or Standard bend 10=model number and everything else is assumed, down eye,  standard wire, standard length.

Below is a discussion of many Gamakatsu fly hooks. Each hook was developed with specific applications in mind.  These are amazing hooks and anglers will not be dissapointed with their performance.

S10 Standard Down Eye, multi use dries and wets. We have been using the S10 as our standard dry fly hook, it’s slightly longer than most standard length hooks, light, strong and micro-barbed for easy crimping.

C15BV Vertical Eye, Emerger/Klinkhammer Barbless Hook. Super light wire designed to have the curved shank sit  sub surface. When tying sparse emerger types this is a nice choice. Near the eye there is a flat spot for a parachute post or wing.

C14S Glo Bug hook. Short Shank, ridiculously strong and sharp, we love this hook for glo bugs, tube fly trailer hooks, and carp corn flies.

L11S-3H Salmon Steelhead 3x strong. We love this one for Chinook flies. Comets and Clousers are excellent on the L11S-3H.

B10S Stinger Hook, 1x strong  Stinger.  Awesome bass fly and streamer fly hook with a massive gap, sharp point and straight eye. Barrett likes this one for his Bassmaster Cascade Killer.

T10-6H Salmon Steelhead Tapered Loop Up-Eye.  A good all around standard wire Steelhead fly hook.  Elongated razor sharp point makes the T10-6H sticky.

SP11-3L3H Perfect bend Saltwater long shank. Great for poppers, longer streamer patterns and billfish in the larger sizes. Tin plated, sharpenable and friendly when you leave it in a fish.

SC15 Saltwater wide gap, tin plated. Excellent for shrimp patterns, saltwater tube flies, and small tarpon flies. Lighter wire than the SC17 makes this hook a bit more versatile in saltwater arena.

SC17 Tarpon specific. This hook is an absolute killer. Once this one sticks it’s the best hook on the market to help you land the fish. Extra strong and sharp this hook is flat out burly. Tarpon Toads and Bunny Baitfish patterns are must on this hook.

SL45 Saltwater Bonefish Hook. I really like this hook for lighter bonefish flies. When you are tying your tailing patterns, no eyes or mono eyes the SL45 is great. My hook up rates are better with the SL45 than the Mustad 3407.

For consistently high quality, sharp hooks with great design give Gamakatsu a try, you will not be disappointed.–CD

This March Brown pattern sits half in half out. It does a great job of imitating the may fly struggling to break the surface meniscus. The Klinkhammer will fool the pickiest of trout with it’s slim, sparse profile. Best results come by fishing the Klinkhammer dead drift down stream to rising fish during a March Brown hatch.

Klinkhammer Style March Brown
Hook: TMC 2488 size 12
Thread: 6/0 Uni Thread
Tail: Lemon Wood Duck
Rib: Fine copper wire
Dubbing: Australian Possum
Hackle: Brown
Post: Neon colored Antron

A great march brown imitation for the lower McKenzie River, the Hare’s Ear March Brown is a must-have pattern. This buggy wet fly is great in any number of situations, but should fish really well these next few weeks. It’s definitely worth having some of these easy-to-tie patterns in your spring fly box.

Hare’s Ear soft hackle
Hook: 3761 TMC Size 10
Thread: 6/0 black uni
Tail: Lemon wood duck
Rib: Lagartun Gold Tinsel
Body: Hare’s ear dubbing
Hackle: Partridge