One of the things I have really enjoyed about tying flies with variegated wool yarns is how quick and easy it is to tie with compared to mixing and using dubbing blends. Yarn can also be tapered by twisting techniques and made thicker as well by adding additional yarn layers. Now, for those of us who desire to put floating bodies on our flies with this same kind of speed, efficiency and convenience, Take A Look AT This:
…Karl.
It works well, but is more expensive per inch than other yarns. The convenience factor is a big plus, though.
Tom, thank you for putting up your article on the Dirty Bug Yarn. Yes, these products are pricy for what you get but, very convenient. Since you have some of the Dirty Bug Yarn, does the label have any information on what the yarn is made of?
In the pictures, the multiple color speckled varieties look really good to me, and hopefully, to the fish…Karl.
Antron yarn is try-lobal, flashy and highly reflective. The Poly Yarn is opaque and dull by comparison. Wool goes semi-transparent when it gets wet and provides lots of movement in the water, especially when roughed up. There are Mohair and acrylic yarns as well as nylon yarn materials, which all give off different appearances and material actions in the water that a fly tier has to decide upon and deal with in his tying, and which the fish can react to very differently, which is part of what makes fly tying so interesting and rewarding.
Add in UV Treatments and Fluorescent Dyes and things become anything but simple. Like Peacock Herl and Sword, untreated wool yarns are naturally UV absorbent materials. What the fish pay the most attention to is Contrast between UV Reflective and UV Absorbing fly tying materials, as well as the contrast between Light on Dark and Dark on Light fly tying materials, and the contrast between the colors of the materials our flies are tied with and the colors of the waters we are fishing.
Natural food forms have natural markings and color patterns to break up their body images and protect them from being eaten by predators. As anglers and fly tiers, we do not need to camouflage our fly patterns from the fish we are trying to catch by making them look like the naturals as much as we can.
After doing a little more searching, I found out that Semperfli’s Dirty Bug Yarns are made up of blends of synthetic and natural fibers, so it is not a 100% wool yarn.
On another related topic of interest here for Kebari Tyler’s, Gray Partridge Hackle is highly UV Light reflective; Brown Partridge is not. So pairing gray partridge hackle with just about any color of wool yarn (except for the Fluorescent colors) will provide the high contrast obtainable by using UV absorbing and. UV reflective materials in combination…Karl.