Well for starters, I am going to say that this is my first time posting on this site, but I have been using it for a while as a resource. Let me say that this is a great site too. Ok, now to my question. Has anyone ever used dog hair when tying a fly. I have a yellow lab, that is actualy white, and he sheds a lot. I was just wondering if anyone have ever used it in their patterns. I never really thought about using it until tonight, when I was tying while watching TV and he (my dog) rubbed up against my leg and a bunch of hair was left on my pants. I thought it would be kind of funny to use his hair in one of my flys, so I decided to try it.
Yes, there are a good bunch of folks that do. The Virtual Fly Box just did a swap this summer of folks who use pet hair to tie flies. I think the swap was about 15 or so folks.
I have a border collie whose tail hair I use for wing material in steelhead flies. Long white hair that turns translucent when wet. I use a bit of white buck tail as an under wing to hold the thin tail hair over wing up.
Hehhe, i must admit that i have used(well, attempted to use) some of my pets fur for tying flies. I found that my cats shedded hair makes an excellent dubbing, quite similar to muskrat on some of the flies i tie. I tried to use my chocolate labs hair for some flies but it didn't work out for me. :HMMM
I have a couple of "Red Tabbies", cats that are mostly orange and faintly striped. I use their underfur for dubbing and the guard hairs for tails. The two flies I tie most often using my cat's hair are:
A classic soft hackle - Partridge and tan (ala Partridge and Orange)
A classic nymph - A Gold-Ribbed Cat's Fur (ala Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear)
We have a standard poodle and she has hair like humans, not fur like most other dogs. After brushing her I strip the brush and save the hair. Most of it is long and works well in water, it moves really well. I'm going to tie some buggers like Denny Rickards seal bugger and see how it works.
Some dogs have underfur and guard hairs not unlike deer. Some of it is probably long enough to stack. I'm just not sure you're going to like how Fido look after harvesting little patches. :EEK
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