Dubbing can be rather confusing. Dubbing is typically used as both a noun - the material that is used - and a verb - the process of putting that material around thread and then around the hook shank. Dubbing tends to come in a bag of mixed fibers rather than in a hank as most wing materials do. Of course, there are also "streamer dubbing" which is similar in structure to some other dubbing materials but is typically used in a much different way. I am going to largely ignore dubbing used to create streamer heads and concentrate mostly on dubbing in the more traditional sense. Most of the time, dubbing is used to create bodies of flies.
I always enjoy the Kelly Galloup videos as he is knowledgeable and tells it as he see it. He does a great job of giving a relatively concise introduction to and history of dubbing - which if you have watched some of his tying videos, you know that short and concise is not always his thing.
Types of Dubbing
As Kelly Galloup states, dubbing was originally from mammals with beavers and muskrats being used to create dry flies and terrestrial organisms - rabbits and squirrels, in particular - used for nymphs. And then the synthetics came along - synthetic living fibers (SLF) and Super Fine were a couple of the first really good and useful synthetics. Since then, we have absolutely no shortage of different dubbing materials and material blends in all kinds of different categories.
There are a number of ways we could talk about types of dubbing.
Coarse vs. fine
Nymph vs. dry fly (vs. streamer)
Natural vs. synthetic (vs. blends)
Long fiber vs. short fiber
Dull or Flashy (or sheen)
Because there are so many types of dubbing, generalities are difficult but I will make a bunch.
As already mentioned - mammals that live around water tend to be used for dry flies and terrestrial organisms tend to be used for nymphs and wet flies. That said, my favorite material for some dry flies is a hare/rabbit dubbing.
Fine diameter fibers - beaver, muskrat, Super Fine, and some other synthetics - are generally used for dry flies and coarser, larger diameter fibers are generally used for nymphs and wet flies where a "buggier" body is desired.
For natural fibers, under fur is fine and guard hairs are coarser. If you are using dubbing "on the skin" - the way dubbings were first used - removing guard hairs will give you a finer dubbing. Including more guard hairs will produce a coarser dubbing material.
There are natural and synthetic fibers that are useful for dry flies and others that are more useful for nymphs and wet flies. Natural vs. synthetic doesn't tell you that much. However for dry flies, natural fibers tend to be short, whereas synthetic dry fly dubbing tends to have long fibers.
Finer fibers are easier to dub, coarser fibers are more difficult to dub and are often used in dubbing loops (more below).
Natural fibers tend to be dull and some synthetics fibers are as well but there are also so quite shiny or flashy dubbings. Ice Dub is probably the commonly used dubbing that takes flash to the extreme. For whatever reasons, nymphs more typically use flashier dubbings than do dry flies.
There are a number of great dubbings that combine the best of natural and synthetic dubbing properties. Many of the SLF blends (squirrel, hare, Whitlock blends, and others), a number of streamer dubbings, and Hare Tron - a blend of hare (rabbit) and antron - are examples of dubbings with both natural and synthetic fibers.
Personally, I think the idea of dry fly and nymph dubbing is rather outdated. Flies do not use dubbing to help them float - there generally should not be enough dubbing to float a fly. My favorite dubbing for my favorite mayfly imitations - comparaduns and sparkleduns - is Caucci and Nastasi's Spectrumized Dubbing, which is rabbit fur. Modern floatants will have more effect on helping them float than will the choice of material.
One of my favorite dry fly dubbings has become kapok dubbing which come from a plant. Kapok is a long, fine fibered material and is really easy to work with and takes dye well. Give it a try, I think you'll like it!
Dubbing Methods
There are a number of different ways that dubbing material is dubbed onto the thread. The tyer's choice of methods is dependent upon the type of body that is to be accomplished. As describe above, the choice of materials has a lot to do with what types of bodies can be accomplished. For example, a really coarse dubbing - like Ice Dub or natural seal fur or Angora goat - will make it almost impossible to create a thin, tight body. And fine fibers like beaver or muskrat underfur or Super Fine - will make it difficult to create a "buggy" body.
Barry Ord Clarke's video gives three common ways to create different bodies using dubbing. However this is the tip of the iceberg. This being a Fly Tying 101 post, we will not see too much more of the iceberg. I will, however dig a little deeper into the methods Clarke shows above and expand upon them a bit. I like the Tim Flagler - Tightline Productions - 1 minute tying videos as a quick but effective way to show a single technique at a time.
Most dubbing is what we would call "basic dubbing" - that is applying dubbing fibers directly to the thread and spinning those fibers around the thread in one direction to tighten it around the thread. This method is probably the most commonly used by fly tyers and it works well for all but the most coarse of materials.
The finesse method above is typically used for shorter fibered natural or synthetic dubbing materials. As he says repeatedly in these videos that less is more. The most common mistake most tyers make is trying to add too much dubbing at once. You are better off to just barely cover the thread and then add layers if you want a thicker body.
The second part of this video is useful for any time you create too long of a dubbing noodle - the term we give to the a segment of dubbed thread. There are two ways to have too much dubbing. The first is to put too much dubbing on the thread and create too thick of a dubbing noodle which is almost an issue. The second is to make too long of a dubbing noodle which is more easily fixed by just pulling it off when you reach where you want to stop that part of the fly.
To Dubbing Wax or Not to Dubbing Wax
Using - or not using - dubbing wax is largely a personal preference. I typically only use it with coarse materials and for a few particular applications (like some of the dubbing loop and touch dubbing methods below). Much better tyers that me - like Charlie Craven - use it all the time, and other much better tyers than me probably use it less than I do. It is certainly worth having and a few dollars will buy you a lifetime supply.
Common Dubbing 101 Mistakes
I have written about most of these above but figured it was worth putting them all in one place.
As I just mentioned - trying to add too much dubbing at a time is the most common mistake. Less is more! The dubbing noodle should generally be pretty thin, dubbing should just barely cover the thread.
Spinning the dubbing back and forth rather than in a single direction. Twisting the dubbing on in one direction helps secure it to the thread, twisting it in both directions will undo the dubbing from the thread.
Creating a dubbing noodle with dubbing applied unevenly - that is, with some spots having more or less dubbing than others. Sometimes a tapered dubbing noodle is desired but is should have a nice, even taper.
Using dubbing materials ill suited for the desired effect. Try as you might, getting a tight body with Ice Dub or Angora Goat will be difficult and getting a large, buggy body with beaver or Super Fine will be equally difficult.
Using dubbing method poorly suited to the dubbing material being used. You can create a nice body with any dubbing but not always with the simpler techniques above.
Dubbing 201
Below are some techniques I will say are 200-level skills. Master a simple dubbing loop first, then there are more options to help deal with some coarser dubbing materials and /or to create a more translucent body or segment.
When dealing with coarser materials, modifications like the anchor and twist dubbing technique may be needed. I typically only do this with the toughest to work with dubbing materials. Many times, in my opinion, often the better choice when trying to create a tight body is to select a dubbing material - like beaver or Super Fine - that is better suited to the purpose.
Touch dubbing is a technique used, almost always with natural fibers, when you want to create a buggy region on a fly. I like this just behind the collar on soft hackle flies with a bit of mole hair. It creates a rather translucent region of a fly and allows the dubbing to move in the water a little more than do standard dubbing techniques. It is commonly used on wetflies and softhackle flies.
Split thread and dubbing loops (below) are used, generally, to create a shaggy (aka "buggy") body or region on a fly. Split thread only works with certain threads (those made of many individual strands) and usually works best with a thicker thread (UTC 140 rather than UTC 70) unless you are using a gel spun polyethylene (GSP) thread. You might use this technique to create a larger thorax on a fly like a Gold-Ribbed Hares Ear Nymph or the entire body of a scud pattern.
Dubbing loops can be created with any thread and it, I think, generally provides a little stronger dubbing noodle than does the split thread technique which I use more when I really want to keep bulk down. A dubbing loop makes it easy to add more than one material at a time. For example, I might want a rabbit / hare thorax with a few more legs so I can add a few longer deer hairs or Krystal Flash into the loop. Or I might want to create a loop with two different colors.
Dubbing loops are often used for spikier, buggier bodies, thoraxes, or heads on flies. I also use a modification of this technique where I pull out the thread and dub it with beaver or Super Fine using the basic dubbing technique above. Then I create and spin a dubbing loop which, when wrapped will create a tight, segmented body.
If there is a common problem with dubbing loops - other than adding too much material - it is that they require a bit of planning and experience. Creating a dubbing noodle that is too long becomes an issue because you can not easily just take of the excess and tying off in the dubbing loop creates a fly that is a little bulky and doesn't look right. The fish probably don't care but as a tyer, I do.
For more detailed instructions and information about dubbing loops, here are more videos.
Lastly, I share a video on dubbing twisters. My personal favorite are the short, heavy "Shepard's hook" type in the middle of the image below. I have tried a number of these and that is where I have landed - you may find that you like something else.
Streamer "Dubbing"
I wanted to touch upon this very quickly - there are a number of dubbings created to tie streamer heads. Streamer dubbings tend to be long fibers - from 1 to 3 inches long - and are generally fairly soft materials. Many are blends of natural and synthetic materials or blends of different synthetics. Often a bit of flash is added. Some of the more common streamer dubbing materials are Senyo's Laser Dub, Frankendub, Voodoo Streamer Dub, Arizona Simi Seal, and Nightmare Musky Flies (NMF) has a number of choices. Craft fur can be used to create similar heads as in Dave Pinczkowski's Bad Hair Day fly pattern.
A few flies that use stacked streamer dubbing to create the head of the fly. These are not dubbed flies in the standard sense.
Wrapping It Up
Other than the simple techniques in the first Fly Tying 101 post - starting thread, the pinch wrap, and whip finishing - dubbing is probably the most commonly used technique used to create trout flies. It is a technique to add bulk, texture, color, and a taper to your thread and thus, the body of a fly. We use it on a huge variety of flies. For example, take your basic Woolly Bugger and 201 it up with a loop dubbed body, or 301 it up by creating a bi-bugger with a lighter back 2/3rds and a darker head. Creativity comes with learning more techniques.
For the beginning tyer, I always try to suggest how I would get started at the end of these 101 posts. The three types of dubbing I use most are beaver (or Kapok), Hare-tron (antron mixed with rabbit), and SLF squirrel. Like my choices above, you probably want a fine fibered dubbing material for dry flies (beaver), a little coarser, highly versatile dubbing (Hare-Tron), and a significantly coarser dubbing material (SLF squirrel). Ice Dub is another useful material to have to add hot spots to nymphs. I am a big fan of the dispensers because they are an easy and cost effective way to have a variety of colors on hand. But before buying dispensors, I would order a few different dubbing packs and see what I like to use. For example, I prefer beaver or Kapok over similar synthetics but you may not.
Dubbing is a relatively low cost part of any fly. Learn these basic - and not so basic - techniques and you will be able to tie a ton of different fly patterns. Below are some links to dubbing pages on Wisconsin fly shops online stores.
As always, I try to provide plenty of links to other sources of information. In no particular order, here they are: