The flyfisher's winter evening project for this month will be to construct a muskrat fur wet fly, and in the process, learn the fundamentals of fastening fur to thread for use in making fur bodied flies.

The method by which such fur yarn is made is known as "dubbing", and a fly made with this material is said to have a "dubbed" or a "dubbed fur" body. The fur yarn itself also is known as "dubbing".

The fly we are about to tie is a variation of the gray or muskrat nymph called the "Muskrat's Regret". It is very popular in southern Wisconsin where it is widely used for stream trout and pan fish.

Fur is unquestionably one of the best body materials. Fishing flies have been constructed of fur and feathers for hundreds of years. Any furbearer with fine soft under fur is a source of dubbing material.

Animals whose habitat is in and around water, such as otter, seal, beaver, muskrat, etc., have soft water repellant under fur that does not change color when wet.

Muskrat fur is the most widely used of these. It carries tiny air bubbles under water which gives it a glistening translucent appearance that is very attractive to fish. It ranges in color from dark cream to iron blue dun.

The materials needed to tie this fly are as follows: fly head cement, a size 10 or 12 fly hook, size 000 black nylon fly tying thread, a small piece of muskrat hide with fur, ordinary gray nylon sewing thread, a cake of fly tying wax, and a red-brown rooster neck feather.

Essential tools are: a fly tying vise, small pointed scissors, hackle pliers, dubbing needle, (this can be an ordinary needle with a piece of wood for a handle) and especially if your hands are rough, a bobbin to hold the tying thread.

Frequently, particularly for lake fishing, it is advantageous to weight flies. If you wish to do so with this fly, you will need some .015 lead wire and an ordinary pliers.

All these things can be obtained from any dealer in fly tying supplies. Usually when buying wax you will have a choice of soft "tacky" or hard non sticky wax. The sticky kind is easier to apply but can discolor material and make a mess on fingers and clothes. The following instructions are for dubbing with hard wax.

Incidently, you can use thread color to control dubbing hues, especially if the fur is applied thinly. For instance, red thread under muskrat fur will give a pink or purple cast. Green makes olive, etc.

Cut a piece of gray sewing thread about seven or eight inches long. Tie a loop in one end large enough to slip over the vise jaw collar. With this end secured to the vise, grasp the other end and pull tight. Now, using the other hand, rub the cake of wax briskly back and forth along about four inches of thread. The secret of applying hard wax to thread is to rub rapidly enough to warm the thread and wax.

Next, cutting close to the skin, remove a clump of muskrat fur about twice the diameter of a kitchen match and place it on a pant leg or a hard cover book. Using the dubbing needle, spread the fur evenly in a line about three inches long.

Now, place the waxed thread on the fur and pressing firmly with your palm, roll it back and forth until the thread is covered with fur. When this happens, pick up the fur covered thread and roll it between the palms of both hands, rotating it in one direction. This will make it adhere still better to the thread and be more compact. The hard wax won't soil trousers or the book cover. Cut off the excess thread and place the fur covered piece to one side temporarily.

Secure a hook in the vise by clamping the bend, leaving the shank, point, and barb exposed. Squeezing the point or barb in the vise can weaken or break the hook.

Dip up some fly head cement with the dubbing needle and coat the hook shank with it. Starting just back of the hook eye, secure the fly tying thread to the hook by wrapping it over itself and then, winding over and away from you, spiral it back along the shank to a point just above the barb and half-hitch. Use the bobbin or hackle pliers to maintain tension on the thread and let it hang. Saturate this winding with cement.

You have just made a base to fasten the other material to. Without this, the completed fly would slip around on the hook.

Don't let the bobbin or hackle pliers hang free and spin. This will untwist the tying thread and weaken it.

Select a brown rooster neck feather with fibers about twice as long as the hook gap, and stroke the fibers toward the butt to make them stand out from the stem. This is called "preparing the hackle".

Fasten the feather to the hook by holding it parallel to and extending to the rear of the hook shank with its tip on the hook directly above where the thread is half-hitched. Make two thread wraps around the hook and half-hitch. Cement the half-hitch and let the thread hang with tension on it.

Now tie on the fur covered thread in the same place by making two wraps and a half-hitch with the tying thread over one end, and cement the half-hitch.

All winding of thread and material should be over and away from you. By doing this, each operation makes the fly more secure. Winding one way and then another will make a loose fly that can come apart in service.

If you want to weight this fly, now is the time to do it. Spiral the tying thread along the shank to a spot just ahead of the point and half-hitch. Cement this knot. Cut a short piece of lead wire, hold it on top of the hook with one end where the thread is half-hitched, and the other extending back of the hook end. Take three or four turns of thread around the wire end and the hook and half-hitch. Cement this half-hitch and let the thread hang.

Make seven or eight close wraps of the lead wire around its own end and the shank towards the hook eye and tie off by wrapping twice with thread and half-hitching. Cement and cut off the excess wire. With a regular pliers, squeeze the lead wire to flatten it slightly so it won't obstruct the hook gap. Now wind tying thread back and forth over the lead to make a base for the other material, then half-hitch just ahead of the lead wrapping and let the thread hang. Saturate this winding with cement.

Grasp the free end of the fur wrapped thread with a hackle pliers and winding it over and away, wrap it closely up the hook shank and over the lead wire. The body can be shaped by winding the dubbing back and forth if necessary. Tie the dubbing off just ahead of the lead with tying thread wraps and a half-hitch. Cement the half-hitch and let the thread hang.

Stay well back from the hook eye to allow room for a nicely finished head. To make a fur body more fuzzy, open the scissors points slightly and comb the body lengthwise with it.

Next grip the feather's butt with the hackle pliers and wind it on edge over the fur body. Three spirals up the body is about right. If there is enough feather left, make a couple of winds as close together as possible, right against the front of the body. Bind the feather stem to the hook with two thread wraps and a half-hitch and cement. Cutoff the excess feather and use the dubbing needle to pick out any feather fibers that are tied down.

These feather fibers represent legs and are called "hackle". Hackle that is spiraled the length of a fly body in this fashion is called "palmer" hackle. Palmer is old English for caterpillar. The Muskrat's Regret is a palmer type fly.

Now build up a neat head with thread wraps between the hackle and hook eye and finish off with a whip knot or three or four half-hitches. Saturate with head cement. Make sure the hook eye is clear and your Muskrat's Regret is complete.