#3. Tom's Tom

[Tom L]

Tom's Tom as in Tom's madTom, not the GPS TomTom.

 

As I was toying around with the craft furs for the Shiner pattern, I noticed there were a lot of wasted butt-end trimmings. So I tried to come up with a way to make use of those trimmings. I thought of the woolhead sculpins, but the material did not clinged together as wool. I tried to spin them like deerhairs, but they didn't flared. Then I remembered Harry Murray's Madtom which used a rabbit strip as the tail and a dubbing loop of rabbit fur as the head. So that was how I came up with dubbing loop of craft furs as the head of this Madtom pattern.

 

This fly is quite easy to tye. The tail is made of craft furs and a little bit of flash. The eye is a lead dumpbell eye. The only trick is the head. It is made out of a dubbing loop of craft furs and trimed to shape.

 

 

The fly can be fished as a madtom, a sculpin or even a baitfish. It swims hook point up like a Clouser.

 

When tied in lighter colors, it becomes a Baitfish Tom.

[Terry Dodge]

Those things are sick!

Don't you have a restaurant or something to run?

Very nice flies, Tom.

[John Gillio]

Tom, That is a fantastic looking fly. Could you explain the head again.

[Tim A]

Nice little fly, Tom. Very versatile and easy to experiment with different tail materials.

 

John, he is using a dubbing loop for the head. You can google/YouTube this, but basically you leave a long loop of thread hanging off the fly, pull it taught, fill it with your material (in this case the clippings/underfur), and spin it to create a sort of "brush" or fuzzy rope that you can palmer forward just like you would chenille or any other rope-like material. Because this creates a messy fuzzball, Tom has trimmed it into a neater, tighter minnow head taper. I also use a dubbing loop in this pattern (with pics): http://illinoissmall...?showtopic=9662

[Tim A]

Also check this out for better pics of dubbing loop, this time using craft fur & flash together: http://caseysmartt.com/2010/08/01/tying-the-deadhead-minnow/

[Guest rich mc]

thats getting the most out your craft hair patch. great fly. do you like a certain craft hair sampleover another? rich mc

[klrbaer]

Very Nice!

[Mike G]

It is great to see what Tom is doing with that free fur besides Float and Flies. It all started with a tip from rich. In case you want to review where to get it, see

 

http://illinoissmall...?showtopic=9958

 

Tom, thanks for the tip on using that left over fluff in a dubbing loop. Next step is mixing colors in a coffee maker I guess.

[Tom L]

Terry - Thanks. Coming from you, it meant a lot (I think?). Yep! Still putting in 6 days, 60+ hrs a week. But I don't have to be at work until 11:00am and with 2 hrs lunch breaks, I can get plenty of other things done.

 

Tim - Thanks for posting the info on dubbing loop.

 

John - I hope that help. If you need add'l info, let me know.

 

Rich - All my samples were sparkle furs. They seems to be longest and finest. I really like them.

 

Mike - Blending the leftover trimmings in a blender is a great idea.

 

Thanks again, Mike and Rich for the tip. These free stuffs are fun to tye.

[John Gillio]

Thanks guys. Nice info.

[Mike G]

Tom, thanks for the tip on using that left over fluff in a dubbing loop. Next step is mixing colors in a coffee maker I guess.

 

Oops! Make that a coffee grinder.

[Tom L]

I'm cooking up a hellgrammite pattern, using craft furs. Almost done. Coming soon.....