Step by Step Livebait Dubbing Baitfish

Here is a basic step by step for using Livebait Dubbing.  This is a basic starting point and you can introduce other materials for the tail section if you prefer. i.e  Zonker, flash or anything else you like. Livebait Dubbing is very soft and mobile and comes 'alive' in the water. The colours I'm using here are Baitfish belly White, Silver grey, Baitfish blue and Red. Of course you can use your own colour scheme.

Firstly lay down a short thread base near the bend of the hook.

Now take a thin section of dubbing, the length really depends on the profile you are trying to achieve, long and slim or shorter with more bulk. introduce a taper to each end of the dubbing.

Place the dubbing onto the thread base and secure roughly in the middle with a few wraps. This will form the tail section of the fly.

Fold back the forward facing section towards the hook bend and secure with a few wraps and a drop of glue.

Move your thread forward and tie in another section of dubbing both on top and bottom of the shank in the same manner as the tail section. Make these pieces slightly shorter than the tail section to begin introducing a taper.

Again fold these sections back and secure with a few wraps and a drop of glue. Then comb all the pieces through to blend them together.

I now tie in a single strand of flash and position it along the middle of the tail section.

Move the thread forward again and begin tying in shorter clumps of dubbing along the shank exactly as in the previous steps to form the body of the fly. Comb the material through at each stage to blend it with the previous one.

Repeat until you almost reach the hook eye and then tie in your final alternate colours.

I also tie in a short section of lateral flash here to represent gill plates.
For this final stage don't tie the material down on itself when you fold it back, instead bring the thread forward between the sections of material and build a small thread dam in front of the nose of the fly, this will give a bit of bulk to the head of the fly as well as pushing a bit of water.

Whip finish, secure the thread with a tiny drop of UV resin and add some eyes.

Simply add water and go catch some fish !

Hope you enjoyed the SBS, any questions please feel free to get in touch via email.

Chris