FLYMPH FORUM

Lovely wee wets, John. Thanks much for giving us a realistic version to work with, as the impressionistic painting in the Pritt book leaves quite a bit to the imagination. And thank you, Ray, for such a great job of passing this on to us.

http://www.arkive.org/water-vole/arvico ... 24241.html



dd

In following the link about water voles thoughtfully provided by Stefan, I found a reference to lemmings -- a species to which the voles are related. Considering where they live (Northern climes), lemmings must have some fine, dense fur that would make good dubbing. I wonder why fly recipes do not often mention it? Are they also protected like their vole cousins?

tie2fish, Howdy;

As far as the lemmings are concerned, it would just be a matter of finding which cliff
they are about to leap from and awaiting their arrival at the bottom with a net, ... wouldn't it???

hank

Here is a link to a paper about water vole problems in Sweden by a student at the Agricultural University, SLU. There is a summary in your language early on. I don't know if the water vole is included in the CITES list. You can buy traps for water vole, the best is supposed to be the Bavarian Wire Trap.

Lemmings don't live in the UK, and aren't fancy. Suppose that's why they aren't included in old tying recipes.

http://stud.epsilon.slu.se/54/1/jansson_r_090602.pdf

dd

A possible alternative to water rat might be meadow vole or field mouse as it is also known. It is very common in the US. It is often considered a pest and is trapped by nuisance trappers. Leisenring mentioned the meadow vole as a source for dubbing in his book. I think the key to the use of water rat is the bluish underfur. When dubbed on yellow silk the overall effect is an olive color. Mole would give a darker version and rabbit underfur would be lighter. Bill

John, the flies are gorgeous. Thank you Ray for posting these!

Bill (wsbailey) - You're comment about the blending of material colors, resulting in a shade of olive, it interesting. I had not concidered that, when reading the original recipe. Now that I study John's examples in greater detail, I agree.

I recently purchased a kit muskrat skin from Blue Ribbon Flies, which I am hoping makes a good substitute for cub fox dubbing. I will take a photo of the skin and post it later.

wsbailey wrote:A possible alternative to water rat might be meadow vole or field mouse as it is also known. It is very common in the US. It is often considered a pest and is trapped by nuisance trappers. Leisenring mentioned the meadow vole as a source for dubbing in his book. I think the key to the use of water rat is the bluish underfur. When dubbed on yellow silk the overall effect is an olive color. Mole would give a darker version and rabbit underfur would be lighter. Bill

It seems as if Water vole has become the Chadwick 477, or the Overton Wonderwax, of dubbing. I read somewhere that it has that brownish tinge to it as the Waterhen is supposed to have, and that this is the reason for it's effectiveness. I know naathing of the validity of this. If I remember this correctly, the statement was that there are three materials to which there are no satisfying substitutes; dotterel, peacock herl and water vole. Did I say that I know naathing of the validity of this?

dd

I'm working on getting the materials together for this. When I get the right feather subs nailed down, maybe I'll tie these in mole, vole and muskrat to try to get a comparison. I can't wait to see everyone's offerings on this pattern. The resources and background information is really interesting, especially for a pattern I didn't even know I was very interested in, until now.

John, thanks for getting us started with your ties. Impeccable as always.

A kind and generous friend passed along a beautiful sample of water vole.



I have mole that is a bit lighter and muskrat that is more blue, but these are typical. The scans aren't great. I'll try to get shots of these with my point and shoot, but no promises that it will offer any better information.