Tups Dubbing

[joaniebo]

Although I posted this pic under the "Chadwick's 477" posting, I thought a separate posting might be a good idea if someone is looking for info on the Tups Dubbing:



PS - As further info, I mix my Tup's dubbing with a mixture of natural, yellow and red seal / African goat dubbings plus sone natural tan Hare's ear to color match the texture and color of some Tup's dubbing samples sent to me years ago from the UK (from the fellow's father's and grandfather's original dubbings from the early - mid 1900s).

[WiFlyFisher]

joaniebo, thank you!!

I often wonder on the old fly patterns where they list the materials how much of each material they used to make their blends. Seeing the finished dubbing really helps.

Like with so many patterns today there are so many hybrid patterns you're never sure what the original patterns really looked like.

John

[PhilA]

John,
There's no fever quite like Tup's fever, and you've got it bad my friend. But there's only one prescription for Tup's fever ... more Tup's Indispensables! Before that can happen, you'll need two colors of seal's fur, combings of a lemon yellow spaniel, and a genuine English hare's mask. But when you're done, in the words of Skues, "the Tup’s wool becomes somehow illuminated throughout by the colour of the seal’s fur, and the entire effect of the body is extraordinarily filmy and insect-like."

Welcome to the Dark Side of the Force.

For what it's worth, I used the online photo posted above by joaniebo, and this is as close as I could manage to Austin's authentic dubbing.

[joaniebo]

I mixed up a batch to match the "Circa 1910" Tup's sample sent to me awhile back from the UK. Not quite as yellow as the Austen mix but (in person) pretty close to the 1910 sample.

[WiFlyFisher]

joaniebo, do you have a photo from them of Mr. Austen's original Tup's dry fly?

So how many of you Tups collectors (including NarcoBob) did all this to your stank Tups?

Washing it is best done out in the garage if you have a significant other who might object to hot greasy sheep smell in the house. You will want scalding hot water and regular dish soap. Bring a pan of water to a boil and turn it off. Squirt in some detergent and then sink the tup's in it. Push it in with a slotted spoon till it soaks up and doesn't float. Leave it sit for about 15 minutes. Scoop the fiber out with a slotted spoon and dump the water. Repeat. Do another 2 scalding soaks but use just water with no soap. After the 4th trip through the process you will have removed a lot of the grease but the fiber may still be stuck in gunky clumps. Once it cools enough to handle you can pull any stuck clumps apart with your fingers and rinse again with warm water. (It may seem really icky to handle but it won't hurt you - it's just grease and sheep sweat and dirt from the floor. There's nothing vile or disease ridden there.) There may be some fiber that's just too felted together to pull apart but you should still get a worthwhile pile to work with.

[narcodog]

I was fortunate enough to have been gifted a nice amount. In fact the person I got it from sent me packages twice, as I had given the first pack to a number of folks. Now the fellow I got it from did post photo's of doing just as described and did make a lengthy narrative on the stinkin process.

[joaniebo]

JohnS

Don't have a pic nor could I find a Tups tied by Austen but did find this Tups by Ogden Smith. Notice the tails are significantly longer than most of the Tups pictured elsewhere.

Bob

[WiFlyFisher]

JohnS

Don't have a pic nor could I find a Tups tied by Austen but did find this Tups by Ogden Smith. Notice the tails are significantly longer than most of the Tups pictured elsewhere.

Bob

Bob,

I am always curious when I see Tups tied with a partial yellow body and then the Tup's blend near the thorax. I don't remember reading that in any description for the original pattern. Mike Valla in his book "Tying Catskill Style Dry Flies" mentions on page #184 ... Austin himself sometimes tied the fly with a couple of turns of yellow silk. (Notice he spelled ii Austin, probably a typo.)

So my thought is would not the Tup's dry fly originally look more like this?



BTW, I used mohair for my Tup's blend since that is all I have and I used a bluish honey dun cock hackle which I believe is closer to what the original pattern called for.

Note: this is strictly my own interpretation and is not inferring I know the true facts.

[PhilA]

John,
I've not seen photos anywhere of Tup's dries tied by Austin. Skues, however, tied both a Tup's dry fly and his own wet-fly derivative. Photos of both are shown in Minor Tactics of the Chalk Stream. His Tup's wet appears to have the dubbing as a thorax, nested behind the collar of hackle. His Tup's dry has the dubbing spread through a tapered body. Skues wrote little about the Tup's dry fly, but he made the Tup's wet famous both as a nymph and as an emerger to bulging trout.

Tup's Wet:


Tup's Dry:


Austin's recipe for the Tup's dry fly is (from T. Hayter, G.E.M. Skues, The Man of the Nymph, 2013):
Hook: Sneck bend
Silk: Yellow, showing two or three unwaxed turns at the tip
Hackle: Pale spangled blue cock
Whisks: As hackle
Body: A mixed dubbing, i.e. the 'tup' mixture.

In the photos above, Skues clearly added fine gold wire to his dry fly and maybe also the wet. Compared to these photos, my Tup's dubbing seems to have way too much red seal's fur, but joaniebo's is pretty close.

[WiFlyFisher]

Thanks Phil.

Based on joaniebo's original photo at the top of this thread I chose to make my psuedo-blend of mohair by hand which I am guessing that is how it used to be done. I found after tying for fun several of the Tup's dry flies that it is harder than I thought to get consistency in the overall body coloration of my mohair blend. I also found wrapping the mohair on a small size #16 made it difficult to get a nice, tight tapered body. So I can see why Skues would want to add a ribbing.



Also, like all photos on the web in 72 dpi, the images will definitely vary from monitor to monitor, not to mention how your camera and the lighting may effect the overall color tones of the photo.