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From a fly tying point of view the word "dubbing" has two meanings.

The word dubbing is used to describe the technique of attaching natural fibres such as animal fur, and synthetic fibres such as synthetic living fibre (SLF) or antron dubbing, to a thread before winding it onto a fly. The technique involves winding in, spinning in or rubbing in the animal fur or synthetic fibres onto the thread or threads so that they can be wound onto the hook to create part of a fly generally the body and or thorax.

The second meaning refers to the  natural fibres such as animal fur, and synthetic fibres such as SLF or antron dubbing that are generically described as "dubbing".

The dubbing techniques for a right handed fly tier are set out below. If you are left handed please remember to switch the instructions around.

There are two ways of dubbing.

Single strand dubbing

The key elements of this form of dubbing are:

Dubbing material is applied to a single thread.
Best technique for dubbing soft materials such as antron, lama, blended rabbit fur etc.

• Dubbing - the single strand method

Dubbing loop method of dubbing

The key elements of this form of dubbing are:

Dubbing material is trapped inside a loop that is twisted into a rope.
Best technique for dubbing coarse materials such as SLF or stands of material such as hair etc.

• Dubbing - the loop method

Common dubbing materials:

Seals fur

Without a doubt the best of the dubbing materials. It's hard to get and relatively expensive so I like to mix it with a combination of the following to increase the volume and get the desired colours.

Angora goat wool

Long strands of angora goat hair/wool. probably the best all round substitute for seals fur except for dry flies it doesn't shed the water as well.

Antron dubbing

One of the best of the synthetic dubbing materials. Made up of fibres that have various amounts of translucency. It adds sparkle to fly bodies, is easy to blend with other dubbing materials and is available in heaps of colours

Life cycle dubbing

This is a Wapsie product and made up of natural furs combined with special shades of transparent materials. It's designed to imitate the most common insect colours.

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