The Dr. Slick Jumbo Carbon Fiber Dubbing Brush is a specialized fly tying tool designed for creating large, custom dubbing brushes. Rather than being a material itself, this tool enables tyers to craft their own unique materials by twisting various fibers, flash, and dubbings between two strands of wire. The resulting "brush" or "noodle" can then be wrapped around a hook shank to quickly build bulky, complex bodies and heads for flies.

This particular model stands out due to its "Jumbo" size, which is specifically engineered to handle the larger volumes of material required for predator patterns targeting species like bass, pike, musky, and saltwater gamefish. The tool features a lightweight and rigid carbon fiber handle, which houses a smooth ball-bearing spinning mechanism. This combination allows for effortless and rapid twisting of wires, even when loaded with dense and long materials, ensuring a tight and durable final brush.

Example Flies

• Game Changer: This highly articulated pattern is almost synonymous with the use of custom dubbing brushes. Each segment of the fly's body is formed by wrapping a composite brush, often made with synthetic fibers like SF Blend or EP Fibers, onto a separate shank. Using the Dr. Slick tool allows a tyer to create consistent, tapered brushes for each segment, which are then trimmed to shape, giving the fly its incredibly realistic swimming motion and baitfish profile.

• Galloup's Dungeon: A popular articulated streamer for targeting large trout, the Dungeon features a large, bulky head designed to push water. This head section is perfectly suited for creation with a custom dubbing brush made with this tool. Tyers can spin a composite mix of materials like schlappen, marabou, Ice Dub, and Flashabou into a wire brush, then wrap it to form a durable, flashy, and perfectly shaped head far more quickly than by stacking materials or using a traditional dubbing loop.

• Cheech Leech: This pattern gets its tantalizing underwater movement from an articulated body and a bulky, composite structure. The front half of the fly is often built with a composite dubbing brush containing materials like Ice Dub, schlappen hackle fibers, and rubber legs. Spinning these varied materials into a single brush with a tool like the Dr. Slick Jumbo Dubbing Brush simplifies the process, integrating all components into one easy-to-wrap material for a buggy and durable fly.

• Drunk & Disorderly: Known for its erratic, side-to-side swimming action, this articulated streamer's effectiveness comes from its wedge-shaped deer hair head. While traditionally tied by stacking and spinning deer hair, a modern and highly durable alternative involves creating a composite brush. By spinning spun deer hair, flash, and synthetic dubbing into a wire core using the Dr. Slick tool, a tyer can create a dense, pre-made brush that is then wrapped and trimmed, resulting in a perfectly shaped and incredibly tough head.

• Buford: A musky and pike pattern designed by Blane Chocklett, the Buford requires a massive, water-pushing head and body. The fly's construction is greatly simplified by using large, dense dubbing brushes made from long synthetic fibers like bucktail or Magnum's Dragon Tail. The Jumbo size of the Dr. Slick tool is essential here, allowing the tyer to spin these long, bulky materials into a robust brush that can be wrapped to form the fly's body and head in just a few turns.

How To Use It

To use the Dr. Slick Jumbo Carbon Fiber Dubbing Brush, you first secure a strand of stainless steel wire onto a dedicated tying bench attachment or within a vise, forming a long, open loop. The desired materials—such as synthetic fibers, natural furs, flash, and rubber legs—are then laid perpendicularly across the bottom wire of the loop. Once the materials are distributed, the hook of the dubbing brush tool is engaged with the top of the wire loop.

By pulling back gently to apply tension and spinning the carbon fiber handle, the tool twists the two wires together, capturing the materials securely within the wire core. The smooth ball-bearing system ensures a rapid and consistent spin, creating a dense, caterpillar-like brush. Once fully twisted, this custom material can be removed and is ready to be wrapped on a hook shank to form the body or head of a fly.

Why We Like It

The primary advantage of this tool is its ability to unlock complete creative control over fly-tying materials. Instead of being limited to commercially available dubbings or yarns, tyers can create precise blends of color, texture, and flash tailored to specific patterns or fishing conditions. This customization allows for the creation of flies with unique underwater signatures and appearances that cannot be replicated with off-the-shelf products.

Furthermore, the Dr. Slick Jumbo Carbon Fiber Dubbing Brush excels in efficiency and durability, especially for large predator flies. Building bulky bodies or heads by wrapping a pre-made brush is significantly faster than using traditional dubbing loop techniques or stacking materials. The tool's robust construction and smooth spinning action make the process of creating these brushes effortless, while the resulting wire-core material adds considerable durability to the finished fly, helping it withstand the sharp teeth of predatory fish.

Comparable Tools

The most direct comparison to the handheld Dr. Slick tool is a bench-mounted system like the Stonfo Dubbing Brush Device. The Dr. Slick model offers portability and the tactile feedback of a handheld tool, allowing the tyer to feel the tension and twist directly. The Stonfo device, by contrast, is a more stationary, machine-like system that clamps to a bench and often uses a crank handle, which can provide greater leverage and consistency for producing large quantities of brushes. The choice between them often comes down to a tyer's workflow preference, portability and feel versus stationary power and production volume.