Fly Tying

Mad Rabbit dubbing holds a special place on my tying desk, much like squirrel dubbing, both being one of my favourite dubbing, and that’s because I use them for fresh river patterns. In the last 2-3years, hunters have shared bad news me: hare, crucial for obtaining Mad Rabbit dubbing, are becoming increasingly rare and challenging to hunt.

Anticipating potential scarcity, I began exploring alternatives and I started to check all kind of furs and skins we have in our fishing shop. I came up with the idea of trying to get a nicely pigmented dubbing with a lot of guard fur and less underfur. But a dubbing made with hair from short, beautifully colored and pigmented fibers. This led me to an interesting experiment: I took some squirrel skins, carefully removed their masks, and began the meticulous trimming process.

Now, you might think it sounds a bit unconventional, and you’re right. Nonetheless, I proceeded, and from about 2-3 masks and 20-25 min. of trimming, I managed to produce a sufficient quantity to draw a conclusion. Despite the considerable effort involved, I must say that the resulting dubbing is truly fantastic.

The hair looks absolutely great, you can see that the texture and colors are phenomenal. I photographed pieces of hair that fell out after cutting the fur with scissors. Obviously, after mixing the entire material in the mixer, the final color will be darker, but the fibers will look exceptional in the composition of the flies