Marc Martyn posts article on Blending Dubbing Material

[Anonymous]

Marc Martyn provides us a step by step method on how to blend dubbing materials - excellent information!


Blending Dubbing Materials

[Lotech Joe]

Great Article. I use the same method and it works very well. Any color you want, with any flash you want. Very useful.

[leahcim_dahc]

Thanks for another great article, Marc!! Which by the way...raises a question. I'll post that somewhere else, though. :-)

[A9]

Cool stuff. Very interesting too! I don't fly fish but enjoy reading Marc's work....

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

About buying coffee grinders (aka dubbing blenders):

I bought my first one from a fly shop and paid $20 for it.

The second one I bought at a close out table of either Home Depot or a home furnishings store.

That one was $3.95. There's a pretty steep markup if they are bought at speciality stores. I ended up giving the 2nd blender away to a beginning fly tyer from one of Mikes previous versions of WALakes. It was Curtis from Enumclaw or another town around there.

Anyways...don't be afraid to go into the home stores with your wife or girlfriend. Lots of stuff there with an application to the fisherperson. Also, yarn and/or craft stores are a good source for body material and glass beads. Rabbit skins are lots cheaper in craft stores.

[Marc Martyn]

About buying coffee grinders (aka dubbing blenders):

I bought my first one from a fly shop and paid $20 for it.

The second one I bought at a close out table of either Home Depot or a home furnishings store.

That one was $3.95. There's a pretty steep markup if they are bought at speciality stores. I ended up giving the 2nd blender away to a beginning fly tyer from one of Mikes previous versions of WALakes. It was Curtis from Enumclaw or another town around there.

Anyways...don't be afraid to go into the home stores with your wife or girlfriend. Lots of stuff there with an application to the fisherperson. Also, yarn and/or craft stores are a good source for body material and glass beads. Rabbit skins are lots cheaper in craft stores.

Craft stores are an excellent place for many materials. I got some lead crystal beads at Micheal's at a good price for some of my Muskie flies. You are right about the rabbit skins. I picked up some brown rabbit at a price way cheaper than the fly shops. They also have some pretty cool sewing/craft boxes that a guy could use for hauling your tying materials around.

[dbk]

Craft stores are good places to find inexpensive materials to tie with, but as flyfisherman, I think its important that we consider other things beyond the price when we make a decision to buy something. Price is important, but there is something to be said for supporting the local fly shops, particularly when they are well run by people who really care about their customers and want to help you learn and enjoy the sport as much as possbile. While the price of an item may be less expensive at a craft store, what you do not get is personal time with one of the fly shop staff showing you a particular tying technique, or describing for you how to tie a new pattern, or suggesting other materials that may work better for what you are trying to tie. Those are things that your money can never buy when you purchase materials at a craft store, online, etc.. for discounts that are purely economic in nature. While you may pay more money, you get more than simply the item you purchased from a fly shop. They give you that which money cannot buy in the form of time, information, advice, etc..

Money is a factor, and I certainly do not begrudge anyone who chooses to save some money by purchasing items elsewhere, but good flyshops are valuable resources that are important to the flyfishing community. Its a difficult business to succeed at, especially today with all the other "cheaper" options available, and I think its important we do what we can do to help support them. Spokane lost great fly shop when the Blue Dun went out of business a few years back. I suppose I hope that the bottom line for us is not simply a matter of economics, but rather a broader vision and respect for this sport that has brought so many of us great memories, experiences, and most importantly friendships that will last a lifetime.

Dave

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Craft stores are good places to find inexpensive materials to tie with, but as flyfisherman, I think its important that we consider other things beyond the price when we make a decision to buy something. Price is important, but there is something to be said for supporting the local fly shops, particularly when they are well run by people who really care about their customers and want to help you learn and enjoy the sport as much as possbile. While the price of an item may be less expensive at a craft store, what you do not get is personal time with one of the fly shop staff showing you a particular tying technique, or describing for you how to tie a new pattern, or suggesting other materials that may work better for what you are trying to tie. Those are things that your money can never buy when you purchase materials at a craft store, online, etc.. for discounts that are purely economic in nature. While you may pay more money, you get more than simply the item you purchased from a fly shop. They give you that which money cannot buy in the form of time, information, advice, etc..

Money is a factor, and I certainly do not begrudge anyone who chooses to save some money by purchasing items elsewhere, but good flyshops are valuable resources that are important to the flyfishing community. Its a difficult business to succeed at, especially today with all the other "cheaper" options available, and I think its important we do what we can do to help support them. Spokane lost great fly shop when the Blue Dun went out of business a few years back. I suppose I hope that the bottom line for us is not simply a matter of economics, but rather a broader vision and respect for this sport that has brought so many of us great memories, experiences, and most importantly friendships that will last a lifetime.

Dave

I think Kaufman's and Avid Angler received enough of my $$$ over the years.

Why did Bill shut down Blue Dun? Was it strictly economics? He also had a piece of the one in Wenatchee. Bill was the first manager of the Bellevue Kaufmans.

[dbk]

Zen, I cannot really speak for Bill, but the conversations we had in the months prior to his closing the shop certainly indicated to me that economics was one of the primary factors. People started buying items online, at Sportsman's Warehouse in the Spokane Valley Mall, etc., and I think it just became too difficult to keep the business financially afloat. I can only speak for myself, but what Bill and his staff gave me far surpassed the amount of money I spent there, and I bought just about everything I needed through his store. Not all flyshops deserve that kind of support for obvious reasons, but when you do find one like the old Blue Dun, its important to support them. Bill is still a friend to this day, and he cared about his customers. Not all flyshop proprietor's of course care about the people who visit their shop, but he certainly did. I realize their are "bad" flyshops out there which understandably can make a person want to go elsewhere to spend his money. I am not sure what your experiences have been like at Avid Angler, but it still saddens me that we lost a great flyshop here in Spokane. Hopefully we can support the one's we have know and keep them with us.

[Marc Martyn]

Spokane is a strange town when it comes to supporting fly shops. In the 40 years that I have been fly fishing, I have seen many shops start up and slowly fade away. It is a $10.00/hr town and until the last ten years or so, not that many people fly fished. You have always had the two fly clubs in town, but really the general population doesn't participate in the sport.

John Propp had a great shop with a lot of materials and a very good staff. The Blue Dun was a great shop also. There is nothing wrong with the fly shops in town, I think that there just isn't the interest to support several shops in the area. The two clubs both support the remaining shops in town, but there isn't that much business coming in off the street. The internet is too easy to use and the big box stores have a greater buying volume, reducing the cost of the items. Many people in this area are bargain hunters.

I try to support the remaining fly shops. Many of the fly fisherman I know also do. With the cost of living and transportation sky rocketing, the local shops are facing some tough times ahead. Even the most avid fly fishermen are cutting back on fishing trips. Let's hope that they can survive the tough economic times.

[Rooscooter]

I'm afraid that the fly shop as we know it will slowly fade away. I see it as a "generational" phenomenon more that just "bargain hunters" though.

"E" commerce and information web sites are revolutionizing what we "older" folks think of as fly shops. This forum and more like it replace most of the "sagely" advice provided by the shops and readers can get instant information as to where "hot spots" are this week just by turning on the computer or even their phone. The current and subsequent generations will gravitate more and more to this instant information and shopping and farther away from "traditional" retailing as we know it in the future. This has happened before with the consolidation of bakeries, butcher shops, dry goods retailers and produce stands into what we know as supermarkets(all started by Joe Albertson 300 miles to the south). Walmart and Costco have pushed forward with that concept to make "one stop" shopping destinations.

I don't see it like some people as a bad thing......it's just a different thing. My 90 year old dad loves to tell me the story of when his father put a phone in his post office/general store in Idahome, Id (the first in SE Idaho at the time). He couldn't believe that people would pay to talk to other people over "that thing" rather than just go over and talk to them in person. He predicted that the "fad" would fade away as soon as the novelty wore off. That was in the early 1920's

Tight Lines!!

[zen leecher aka Bill W]

Zen, I cannot really speak for Bill, but the conversations we had in the months prior to his closing the shop certainly indicated to me that economics was one of the primary factors. People started buying items online, at Sportsman's Warehouse in the Spokane Valley Mall, etc., and I think it just became too difficult to keep the business financially afloat. I can only speak for myself, but what Bill and his staff gave me far surpassed the amount of money I spent there, and I bought just about everything I needed through his store. Not all flyshops deserve that kind of support for obvious reasons, but when you do find one like the old Blue Dun, its important to support them. Bill is still a friend to this day, and he cared about his customers. Not all flyshop proprietor's of course care about the people who visit their shop, but he certainly did. I realize their are "bad" flyshops out there which understandably can make a person want to go elsewhere to spend his money. I am not sure what your experiences have been like at Avid Angler, but it still saddens me that we lost a great flyshop here in Spokane. Hopefully we can support the one's we have know and keep them with us.

Well...just wait and see what Bill's next business is. Things evolve. At one time he was making fishing videos. I saw a few of them on tv. Darc now has his own store in Ephrata and he started in the Wenatchee store. I think I even saw a fishing episode of Bill fishing for carp at Banks Lake.

Some people even stoop to guiding for them.

[Marc Martyn]

Fly fishing for Carp in England is a big sport. I don't see what people see in those ugly bottom feeders. I can hardly stand to look at them.:shaking:

[dbk]

Zen, Bill is currently working for the The Fly Shop in Redding, CA, which actually sounds like a great job in the conversations I have had with him since he left Spokane. He is doing well. Its our loss though for people like him, and fly shops like the one he ran to leave the area. We do have some good shops still in town. I just hope we can keep them. The trend toward purchasing items via the internet, big volume stores like Cabela's, etc. is rough on fly shops. Bill did not want to sell the shop I do not believe, but the situation economically was to difficult for him to keep it afloat.

If you have a good shop in the area, we should support it as much as we are financially able, which does not mean we never buy things elsewhere, but simply that we have some "loyalty" towards them, especially when they have shown themselves to be first class- both in service and merchandise.

[Anglinarcher]

Spokane is a strange town when it comes to supporting fly shops. In the 40 years that I have been fly fishing, I have seen many shops start up and slowly fade away. It is a $10.00/hr town and until the last ten years or so, not that many people fly fished. You have always had the two fly clubs in town, but really the general population doesn't participate in the sport.

John Propp had a great shop with a lot of materials and a very good staff. The Blue Dun was a great shop also. There is nothing wrong with the fly shops in town, I think that there just isn't the interest to support several shops in the area. The two clubs both support the remaining shops in town, but there isn't that much business coming in off the street. The internet is too easy to use and the big box stores have a greater buying volume, reducing the cost of the items. Many people in this area are bargain hunters.

I try to support the remaining fly shops. Many of the fly fisherman I know also do. With the cost of living and transportation sky rocketing, the local shops are facing some tough times ahead. Even the most avid fly fishermen are cutting back on fishing trips. Let's hope that they can survive the tough economic times.

Marc, as a transplant to Spokane, I think I have a somewhat different view of fly fishing in Eastern Washington.

It appears, at least to the uninformed, that we have no place to fly fish. Sure, we have lakes all over, but the fly fishing lore of Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, etc., etc., has always been streams and rivers. When I lived in Eastern Idaho, or in Montana, or even Colorado, the blue ribbon trout streams were all the talk, but never the lakes.

As a result, I don't think we have the fly fishing numbers, or trip-days, that support a lot of fly fishing shops, especially pro shops. I have fallen into that trap myself. I will travel for many miles to fly fish Idaho, or Montana, but get my gear when I get there to support their local economy. Worse yet, I don't fly fish as often, because it takes time to travel that far.

So, what about all the lakes? What about the Spokane River just a few minutes from my house? Well, you know that they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the street, or state line. Funny when you think of it, my best fly fishing was always on lakes when I was a kid.

I do try to support the locals when I do buy gear, I just don't fish often enough to need gear that often. Perhaps I need to go fly fishing tonight.