Once in awhile there is a material that flies under the radar. It is certainly not by design or oversight, it just doesn't have the glitz and glitter of many other materials. I tend to be attracted to these bottom shelf type of materials, bringing them out of the corners of the material bin and giving them life in fly creation. Many times these materials go back to the dark corners to become tangled with the other rejects but this would not be the case for Hareline Dubbin's Woolly Chenille. I have been tying with it for years and feel I have only scratched the surface of it's usefulness.

I was first introduced to Woolly Chenille as I perused the pages of Hareline Dubbin's catalog. I was the general manager of one of Idaho's larger fly shops and was looking for chenille to put on the wall when I saw the picture of Woolly Chenille. It was a no brainer. I immediately ordered every color and eagerly awaited its arrival. I was not disappointed and in fact, the material was better than I had imagined. Soft and spiky with shiny plastic strips woven in and a strong thread core, I began tying with it and  cool looking bugs flew from the vise. I then fished these creations and I have to admit, Woolly Chenille made me look good on the water.

On the bench, Woolly Chenille is an easy material to work with. Unlike other chenille it lends itself well to trimming with scissors. Tapering a body is easy with a few angled snips. I find that if you wet your fingers as you wrap the chenille and pull the fibers back it will keep them from being tied down and give a full body to what you are tying. A good example of this fullness is the Woolly Scud. This pattern is a cinch to tie but to get the full leg look I pull the fibers back as I wrap and when it is time to pull the plastic strip over the fly I will pull the fibers down to increase the leggy look even more. This fly is the best scud pattern in my box and takes no time to get a half a dozen ready.

 If you can wrap it on the hook then you can make any number of flies with Woolly Chenille. In many cases the additional materials needed for patterns is minimal. As you can see from the flies I have presented with this feature, many of them have only 2 materials. The fun thing is that these flies are all extremely effective stillwater patterns. A word of advise for you soon to be Woolly Chenille aficionados, don't over complicate things, this material has enough qualities to stand by itself.

Most fly shops would be happy to order Hareline Dubbin's Wooly Chenille for you. It comes in 7 useful colors and each package should have around 5 yards of chenille. I would recommend getting each color and experimenting and don't be afraid of twisting a few colors together. You can look at other Hareline Dubbin products by going to WWW.HARELINE.COM and if you do contact them let them know you saw it here at StillwaterFlyfisher.com.