Farrar blend

[Charlie Gonzales]

Anybody else playing with this stuff? Other than the packaging, its pretty cool. Produces great streamers with minimal steps, and some pretty good potential in a dubbing loop if anybody still uses those.

[FISHEYE]

I have been using this a lot for tarpon and other tropical saltwater flies, and even clousers I am tying for king salmon. Farrar has some good tying info on the Atlantic Saltwater Flyrodders Website: http://www.aswf.info/ Go to the multimedia tab. I have been tying Farrars MV baitfish but in tarpon colors and profiles. This style is also making some pretty nice looking sardinas for the Baja. I'll try to post a couple of pics when I get time. I have been using shaded chart, bucktail white, midnight blitz, rainbow, grey, and whatever the purple and black are called. I really like this stuff.

I'd be interested in seeing your dubbing loop idea with this blend and what that looking like. I am not the bet dubbing loop practicioner.

I know what you mean about the package. Its a b&^%$ getting the blend, especially the angel flash back in the pack if the whole thing slides out.

[David Lee]

Hi Charlie .

I've been making my own since it was KINKY fiber , not slinky (6 or 7 years now ?) .

I have not yet used the commercial stuff .....

Kinky ... errr , slinky and skinny flash (angel hair , wing-N-flash , etc.) works as well as anything . But so does plain old Bucktail . I think we're pretty lucky to have so many different materials to fiddle with . Having said that , it seems like the older I get , the more I want a stable supply of whatever I'm using . Everytime I get attached to the latest 'wonder material' , the local shop doesn't carry it anymore , or whoever makes it discontinues it or changes the colors for the worse . I'm tending to fall back on things I can readly find ....

If you find a kind of , or a color of whatever material that you REALLY like .... buy 20 or so packs . You never know , right ?

Mr. Flexable

[Darian]

I've tried Farrar Blend in making a Sea Habit, Mullet pattern and find it's easy to use and provides subtle flash to the pattern. :) I have some Long, soft Yak hair and have created a few blends for this type of fly as well. Looks great. :)

During the Fly Fishing Show, I watched Jay M., use wig hair to tie a killer Mullet pattern and was struck with the thought that flash (Angel Hair) could be easily blended with wig hair to create some very interesting colors, etc. :nod:

[Terry Thomas]

Bruce Berry from Beulah rod company had a couple of killer patterns made with that blend in the booth at the Pleasanton show. Very impressed!

[Steve Potter]

Nice material for bait fish, I watched Enrico P. tie a few killer patterns with his EP fibers at the Pleasanton Show. I like the flash that Farrar incorperates in the fibers a little better. my 2 cents

[briansII]

I'm using it, and pretty happy with the results. Tried the Bucktail White just last week, and like it.....it has a different texture than the regular White. Caught my first striper of the year on a all Farrar Blend fly, so the material should get wet a lot in the coming months.

briansII

[Charlie Gonzales]

So I was kinda thinking outloud when I mention the whole dubbing loop thing, tried it and its much easier to obtain the same look by just stacking the materials.

[bcarson4374]

Love the stuff...

There is a video of how easy that stuff is to work with and how fast you can tie off a fly.

http://clearcuregoo.com/page5/page5.html

Takes a while to load, but give you a good idea of what characteristics that material has. Surprised youtube doesnt have a video using that stuff. Comes in a bunch of different colors. I find the shrimp, redfish, camo, and mullet to be some of the best colors and of course white for a belly.

I have used the slinky/fishy/sf fibers for a bunch of different flies. Baitfish are very easy to make using the fibers but it also makes great toads. From tarpon toads, down to bone toads.

Gliss N Glow I think is a bit too limp and has too much flash.

I think Bill you had mentioned that you had looked at bringing in tuffleye into your store but the price was prohibitive. This stuff is about 40 dollars for a kit. You may want to check it out. I ordered one to compare it to tuffleye and loons knot sense. Should be here next week.

[Jgoding]

I like the stuff. There are tips and tricks on blending your own floating around too as it's just angel hair and slinky fibre. Look up the kinky mullet, pretty cool stuff too.

[Bob Laskodi]

Steve's blend is my secret (well not so secret!) ingredient in my secret striper fly!!! It makes fantastic striper flies!!!! I also make a lot of my own blends using Angel Hair and Slinky Fiber. Phil mentioned it being a $%^&&* getting it back into the package (it is) and here's what I do: take a sheet of paper and roll it into a funnel shape. Place the funnel "nozzle" into the package and push the stuff in. Works like a charm!!!!

[PaulC]

I've used it on some backs of 6/0 FPF style flies.
Nice material, it flows well and saves on blending angel hair into the slinky fiber.
Had some fun this summer with some synthetic yak hair that actually worked pretty well and shed water well for a large fly.
A bit more stiff than the natural. Kind of in between EP fiber and Slinky Fiber.
Anyone else try this stuff?
-Paul

[Charlie Gonzales]

When I buy a new package of the stuff, the first thing I do is take it out of its original package and put it a gallon zip lock; it lays flat against the bottom of the bag. As you pull stuff out it doesnt make nearly the mess. Colors like white, chartruese, peacock and blue I will have about 3 or more packages in one ziplock.

[Lee Haskin]

Hey Charlie,

Dubbing Loops tied with Targus SST dubbing, and a little Farrar Blend material, have solved my Clouser body issues, as well as other SW flies. No more sparse bodies.

Dubbing Loops give the Clouser a nice full body.

Several of my new patterns are tied with dubbed bodies, and it is a great way to go.

Although Targus has over 100 colors of dubbing, I still find myself tuning the colors to create the perfect match.

Since Targus has the "Color Match" system, you can match the SST dubbing exactly to the Foxxfur, or any other Targus material, simply by matching the number. Very cool stuff!

Bill has virtually all of this material in his shop too!!

Also......Charlie and other Kiene BB members:
I will be tying SW flies, with dubbed bodies, at the FFF event on the 22nd and 23rd. Stop by and check 'em out!

Cheers,
Lee Haskin

[Jgoding]

Hey Lee,

Are those flies in the pictures tied with dubbed bodies? And by dubbing I take it you put the long material in a loop or whatever and wrap it on? I thought about trying this awhile ago but it seemed like it would not work well if you wanted a dark over body and a light under body...

[Lee Haskin]

Yes!! The flies shown above are all tied with a dubbing loop, using SST Dubbing!! It takes some practice to get the density of the dubbing loop, and the fiber length right (Targus SST dubbing is already sized perfectly!), but it makes an awesome body. When the tail and the dubbing color match, the materials blend together as one, using a wire brush.
Yes, the fibers can be too long (fouling at the bend); and they can be too short (sticking out and not laying down).

Very cool.


Prior to using a dubbed body, I used long shuck chenille, Estaz, diamond braid, or ?, and was never completely happy with the finish.

$.02
Cheers,
Lee

[Lee Haskin]

Opps! Forgot to answer your question about upper and lower colors.

For a Clouser:
This is a snap. After tying in the tail (same color as the body), dub the body from the back, forward to a point just behind the eyes. (1/8", or so)
Then stroke the top half of the dubbed fibers upward, and clip them close to the shank.

Then tie in the underwing behind the eyes, and continue the dubbing loop forward behind and between the eyes, covering the underwing wraps.

Clip the top fibers again.

Then add a different color, for overwing material, tied in front of the eyes. Both wings will lay close to the midline of the fly, creating the midline color change. Make sense?

Normally, for a Clouser, I like to add a narrow strip of darker material, as a topping. (shown above)

Hope this helps.

Lee

[Steve Farrar]

Hi folks,

I came upon this thread a couple days ago and thought I’d share some tips to ease the handling of SF Flash Blend and better yet to facilitate making your own. First let me thank Bill for expediting the administration of my login.

I noticed a few places in this thread that mention either the difficulty of getting material back into the package or the need to remove it all and bundle it with a twist tie or some other means of securing one side. I designed the packaging to ease your use - the trick is NEVER REMOVE ALL THE MATERIAL FROM THE SLEEVE. Simply tap the package so maybe an inch is extending from the sleeve, then with with one hand holding the sleeve use the thumb and forefinger of the other hand to remove only enough for a given tying step. It should slide out easily without disturbing what’s left in the sleeve. The sleeves were designed to easily fit in the plano 3700 plastic storage boxes and taller ones seem the best. It’s a great way to organize the material in a visible and easy-to-access manner.

Here’s an article I wrote several years ago that will show you how I blend it. Be forewarned, it is time consuming and tedious.

http://www.aswf.info/images/flashblending.pdf

Keep in mind the most important part is to match the relative thickness and length of both fiber and flash. I do find that for thinner bait imitations like sand eels, spearing, and bay anchovies blending unique hair or super hair with angel hair is the works well. The smaller the bait the smaller the kink required in the fiber. The downside is it’s just more difficult to blend. For the largest patterns, Dave Skok’s Mega Mushy blends well with yak and bozo hair(if that’s still available). Experiment - just remember the key is to use like length and thickness in your flash and fiber.

Using a post card funnel works well to slide the blend into a sleeve. If I do have different materials blended, I’ll use a marker to indicate that on the sleeve bottom.

I’ll vary the ratio of flash to fiber as sometimes less flash is more desirable. The process of blending itself produces a more natural feathering and as a result will require less trimming. When using less than a full length for a tying step take care to trim the excess at an angle(shorter towards the hook eye - and longer towards the tail. Large, sharp scissors are desirable.

Watch some of the videos where I make use of injecting plasti dip into the pattern. If used in a SAFE manner it will provide inner support(bulk), reduce fouling, and an easy way to permanently attach moulded epoxy eyes. It does allow for the entire fly to be crafted without head cement and is applied as a last step. Use adequate ventilation and avoid getting it on your skin.

good luck!
Steve Farrar

[David Lee]

It's great to see you here Steve !!

David

[Tony Buzolich]

Good article and pictures on blending Steve. Welcome to the board.

Unless a guy is looking for some very unusual color combination I can't see making my own blend when I'm sure Bill carries all of the most popular colors in stock.

I've been using the Ferrar Blend now for some time and really like the way it works on my Full Dresssed Clousers. I find myself using more and more synthetics and getting away from bucktail to some degree.

One point of interest that has come about from using this stuff (synthetics) is the better hook-up rate on striped bass. A group of friends and I around here fish stripers a lot (yes, obsessively) and we've come to the conclusion that the synthetic fibers tangle in the teeth of the stripers better than the smoother bucktail. If you look at your next striper you'll see that their teeth are like Velcro and the synthetics tangle just a little more and seem to hang on giving you a better chance of getting a good hook-set.

I like to say when you get a grab and the fish spits the fly before you can set the hook you've been "Bit & Spit". With these synthetics those stripers don't "spit" as easily.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Thanks for helping us out here Steve.

As I mentioned Steve, we will ahve to get you out to the Striper Fest in the Delta some year.




PS: Isn't this Internet thing so cool.........

[Jgoding]

Thanks for the tips Lee. I think I'll experiment around with dubbing some flies like those and see how it goes. Have to swing by the shop and check out that dubbing as well.