A dabbler?

[weight_forward]

Having a play around tonight and came up with this,

I would appreciate comments on the proportion etc. rather than the colour scheme, which may well offend those with more sensitive vision!

Cat Dabbler


Cheers

Steve

[Captain Scarlet]

Originally Posted by weight_forward

Having a play around tonight and came up with this,

I would appreciate comments on the proportion etc. rather than the colour scheme, which may well offend those with more sensitive vision!

Cat Dabbler


Cheers

Steve

I'm no dabbler expert Steve, but nice tying, and nice colour scheme!!! LOL....

I prefer my dabblers with a little more cloak, and density to it.

I'm sure there is a use for such a colour, right time right place etc.....

Keep them coming

Carl

[ChrisDickey]

thats not a bad job on cloaking, mine are terrible, works some of the time. one tip would be the darkest coloured fibres of the bronze mallard shoulder you can get. take a 2cm section and split into 1cm sections and place on top of each other. this should give you a nice dark appearance

Keep it up and them coming

Chris

[midlander]

Personally speaking, given the colour scheme, the light/silver mallard and the sparse all round cloaking that looks more hackle like than wing like I'd call it a Cat Gosling. To me it has all the hall marks of a gosling variant, which is no bad thing at all. A very tasty looking pattern.

[hobble]

looks nice, i like a good cloak on a dabbler , just wondering if you put a bit of claret for the cloak would it improve the fly more, looks the bizz all the same,

well done

[goldenolive]

Nice tie,
I would also advise the use of the darkest part of the bronze mallard feather.

That dabbler is very like the 7up dabbler.
Great colour on corrib this month when the trout are on Daphnia.

[Scratch]

That's a nice tie Steve. Doesn't seem too much up with the general proportions to me. My only slight niggle would be that it seems a little fat in the body... unless that's just the way it comes across in the pic? I'll let you off if it looks fat because the dubbing has been seriosly ragged out! Now that I can deal with Down to personal taste though I suppose. I just don't like me dabblers and wets in general to be too fat in the midriff area.
That's quite a cute shade you've got there for the body... something almost child-like about it - like a cuddly toy type colour or something! Most unusual.

Is it a Dabbler? Well, I'm with Alex, so to speak, on this one. The silver mallard hangs more hackle-like than wing or cloak-like - therefore, it ain't a Dabbler. You'll find that a true dabbler profile, and dabbler 'action' and behavior in the water very difficult to achieve with the silver.
As a fly though I think it's kinda cool. I'd never have chosen that colour in a million years, but seeing it up there it's kind of interesting. Looks a little cute and cuddly though.. could do with toughening up a bit...the bronze should do that nicely, and perhaps some evil looking JC splits? Grrrrrrrrr

[sweenytodd]

Well we now know what happend to Orville the duck

[weight_forward]

Thanks for all the comments Gents. I didn’t know about the ‘Gosling’ flies so I’ve learnt something from this experiment, thanks Midlander.

I was just playing really, I was never intending to give it a swim (although it might fool a stockie), I was tying up some Cats Whiskers (from someone else you understand!!) and got a little bored. So thought I’d try a dabbler style fly in the colour scheme with materials I had to hand (hence not using bronze mallard for the wings, which are a bit expensive to waste). The body has come out looking a little pastel coloured, it’s marabou spun into a rope hence the bulky appearance.

I guess like most people when I started tying I tied easy patterns, buzzers, lures etc. but as I get (a bit) better I’m getting more interested in the traditional styles of flies, they are much more challenging to tie, and look a little less like Christmas decorations. The only time I ever fish traditional wets though is when we visit the inlaws in North Uist and I really enjoy it (it’s what got me started in fly fishing), It always amazes me that a 6” wild browny will take a fully dressed size 8 claret bumble that’s the size of its head!

I really should give a go down here. I’m happy to put a black snatcher on the bob in a wave, but wouldn’t try a Bibio or Katie which seems silly.

Enough of my ramblings.

Cheers - Steve