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Dry fly tails
What are the most popular materials used for dry fly tails these days? Originally the material suggested was "Spade hackle" barbs. But today's chickens don't have them. Microfibbets and some paintbrush fibers seem acceptable but I personally like bleached or dyed mink tail fibers except they are hard to come by. Premium Sable artist brush fibers are nice but you have to tap into your IRA to afford them.
Maybe some thoughtful folks could get a bunch of old fur coats and set up a new product line.
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Why not use a few strand of deer or elk body hair? I must confess I do when tying dries at times. I have a little horse mane which is rather stiff and make a good look nymph tail/antenna so if you know someone with a horse you might want to give that a try.
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I use Charlie Collins tailing feathers (used to be spade hackle, now mostly scapular feathers which work just about as well) for most of my mayflies; got these years ago and haven't even come close to using them up. For attractors like foam-back convertibles, humpies, etc I like woodchuck tail or moose body hair.
Regards,
Scott
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I use Collins hackle pack and strung hackle packs.
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Coq de Leon, Moose body hair, micro fibbetts...
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A good source of dry fly tails is an old fashioned shaving brush, it is still possible
to find them if you look in village general stores, if you still have any left.
They can be surprisingly cheap and a couple or three will probably last a lifetime.
The fibres can be coloured easily with a waterproof felt tip, although some of the floatants might affect the colour even then.
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Moose body hair, micro fibbetts, antron.
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Another vote for woodchuck tail hair. IHMO more durable than Moose mane and....best of all...free.
R
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Mostly Collins 'Spade Hackle'. The way Charlie described the 'tailing feathers' to me, this was done while I watched him remove the feathers, the 'scapula' and 'spade' are one in the same. Some older necks have feathers along the edge that can be used as tailing. These were often incorrectly referred to as spades. Other than that, I use guard hairs from a few different mammals.
Allan
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All birds, this includes chickens, both roosters and hens do have scapula feathers. Tiers call them spades. They start at the first joint down the wing and go on up across the back, between the cape hackle and saddle hackle. They are smaller out on the wing, then gradually get larger as you go on up onto the back. The reason some tiers think there are none on our roosters today is because some breeders cut them off, package only the spades for sale. We here at Conranch do not cut them off. When processing, the horrizontal cut, level with the two shoulders, goes right through the middle of the spades. So, on all of our capes you will get some spades and at the top of the saddle you get some also. By themselves they make nice tails but Ray has it correct ("Spade hackle" barbs.) Actually any of the longer barbs from any of the larger size hackle on a cape do work nicely for tails. The coloration on many of the spades is outstanding and we tiers like the looks of them. I like all of the stiffer guard hairs found on many animals. My favorite for wet flies is to flurl my dubbing, using the Rope dub method. I think it traps air bubbles and works on the fish.
Denny
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Microfibbets for spinners; moose, deer, or Whiting's Tailing packs (CDL) for duns; zelon for emergers/cripples.
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I save the short hackle that can't get too many winds on the collar and tie it in as a tail. I also found in "another" western fly tying book from years ago that moose is a popuar tail material.
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Micro Fibbets mostly. I have CDL tailing packs but the colors don't thrill me and I don't want to get into dyeing.
I use moose for my Adams(es).
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CDL. My micro-fibbets packs have remained untouched for a few years now.
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Add another vote for CDL. Great mottled look and there are color variations. One of the prettiest natural feathers I know.
REE
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Cat Whiskers...................use pliers not scissors.
Just kidding, but I have seen one on the carpet and thought ........Hmmmmm......
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I use Coq de Leon, and microfibbets for most of my dries.
Kelly.
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Duffin, my cat loves to curl up next to me when I am at my tying bench so more than once I have found whiskers lying about have also thoughtt about using them for caddis antenna.
For Tailing am still experimenting fibbits or hackle if i can find something I like. Wish I hadn't left that long chunk of mink I found at a swap meet at my ex wifes house that sounds like an excellent idea.
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I also like the Coq de Leon but would like to offer another alternative for those who don't. Al Rockwood who used to run a mail order fly fishing business from his North Muskegon home used porcupine guard hairs for tails on all of the larger flies in his mayfly series. I've never seen them in any other fly fishing catalog but they can be purchased from businesses that sell items for native American crafts. If you collect your own be aware that the quills have a tendency to show up all over the place for weeks after plucking them to get to the guard hairs but roast porcupine is quite tasty.
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Those pliers better have long handles if the cat is like any I have met.
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My vote- Whiting CDL tailig Packs http://www.bearsden.com/page610.html Many places to get it, this was the 1st shop on Google search. One pack will tie a ton of dry fly tails. Also, if you can afford it, invest in a CLD rooster saddle. Look up the color shades and order the color you want- same for the tailing packs. They do dye them. Check stocks at different shops. I got tailing clumps in orange and brown when I visited the farm last. If you don't need a whole pack, split with someone or each buy a color.
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No one has mentioned false eyelashes. Some are even 'clumped' in groups of three fibers. They curve like real mayflies and come in various lengths. While you're there buy some sparkle nail polish for interesting head cement on streamers - and don't forget the Sally Hansen's.
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These days I usually buy full skins when buying hackle. From "chickabou" to spades, schlappen to aftershafts there are so many useful feathers that usually just get wasted and I do not understand it... Just the breast feathers to use for wings save a ton of hen hackles... I have a big stack of Denny's full skins and lots of spade options for color.
There is no real substitute for good spade hackles. Moose mane is too coarse for all but the largest flies. Various brushes and such make reasonable tails but they are pricey and limited in color. Give me a nice stack of Denny's full skins or at least a bunch of saddles or capes with the central spades left on... Took a look the other day because I needed a photo background and was a little surprised at the number of color options there are in my hackle bins. ;) If I had any decency I would likely be embarassed... Yeah, right! as my son says... :0
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I have quite a few CDL clumps and use a small bunch for nymphs, and a smaller bunch for dries, but what about just single fibers? Are these better for dries, or would a small bunch suffice? They're kind of hard to separate out. Also, how important is color? I have just the dark mottled ones and use these for everything.
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Hi Ray,
I mostly tie Wulff type dries, when I tie mayfly dries, and so use primarily animal hair for tailing. Lee Wulff, in his book "Lee Wulff on Flies," stated that in his early years he experimented with tailing because the Catskill patterns tended to not float very well in quick water. He found that animal hair floated the dries much better than spade hackle fibers, so hair became the tailing for his Wulff series of dries.
I have used calf tail, calf body fur, buck tail, deer body fur, and moose for tailing. The calf tail works well, but is a bit of a pain to tie with because it is so curly. However, calf tails are not all created equal, and some have straighter hair than others.
I do think one of the above posters is correct, in that calf, moose, deer hair, and buck tail get to be a problem with the smallest flies. I have tied #18s with such, but it is a bit of a pain. Most of my dries are #16 and larger, and the fur is not too much of a problem for those sizes.
For deer hair, the hair from the center of the back of whitetail bucks seems to be the best for wings and tailing, as it is not as hollow as hair from the sides of the deer. It has far less tendency to flair.
That said, every now and then I do tie Catskill patterns, and to me the look of the Catskill dries just exudes class, so I love the look of them and enjoy tying them. For those, I have some old Keough capes and saddles that have excellent tailing on them, and also have a couple of Denny's 1/2 capes, so am in fairly good shape of that kind of tailing.
Regards,
Gandolf
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Also, and not mentioned are guard hairs from mink tails. They make great, stiff tails and are usually available in several colors. They also furnish some excellent dubbing. My choice for wulff flies is deer hock hair.
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Thanks to all you guys. Gandolf and I are on the exact same wavelength and I would ask Oldster, who I would address as "young man" because he is seven years younger than me, if he knows of a retail source for mink tails that I mentioned in my original post. I've been using the last of the ones I purchased from Eric Leiser years ago when he had a material shop.
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One interesting twist on this discussion is to make the tail material the hackle fibers too, all to once'et.
The Pott Licker uses red Fox Squirrel for the tail. Those fibers get wound onto the shank, all the way up to
the hackle position. Then I use a straw to push the tag ends of the tail fibers back, and then wind some
wraps and dubbing up front, which forces the tag ends to stay at right angles to the shank. The tail is also the hackle.
Quick cheap and easy to tie. Durable. Floats well too. Never gets bedraggled. Can't beat that.
http://montana-riverboats.com/Uploads/Pott-licker.jpg
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Pittendrigh, Would you consider posting step by step pics for the Pot Licker?
R
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Consider sure. Do it too, at some point. Pics do take time. I shoot them constantly during the tying season.
Now it's fishing and boating season. Haven't fired up a vise in weeks. Nor the camera.
There's really not much to it. I lash a clump of hair (it doesn't have to be Fox Squirrel) on much like any hair tail. No different than starting a Blonde Wulff.
You do need long fibered hairs of some sort. I leave the butt ends running wild off the front end of the fly. Then I trim them to length (while still parallel to the shank, pointing forward, past the eye of the hook).
Trimming to length is the only hard part. The butt ends need to be shorter than you initially expect. But that's easy to get right. Trim the butt ends. Push them up at right angles to the shank and then re-trim again if needed. Dub the abdomen and pull the thread through the hairs so it now hangs from the front side of the hackles. Pull the fibers back. Wind a tightly-wrapped lump of thread immediately in front of the hackles fibers. Put a tiny drop of CA glue on that lump (in front of the hackles). Now they're locked in place forever. But a bit of dubbing behind they eye and call it good. This is not an anatomical imitation of anything real. But it is no less realistic than any Wulff fly or Goofus Bug. It's a quick cheap and durable big river attractor that works well for me.
....this is a subsequent edit:
There is a difference in the initial tail mounting. On most dry flies with a hair tail (Royal Wulff etc) you would try to position the tail fibers on top of the rear end of the shank. I try to mount the tail (so it is still a neat cylinder of fibers) so it surrounds the shank as much as possible. Then, once over-wrapped up to the hackle position, it's easier to get the hackle-end-fibers to not only be at right angles to the shank, but also to splay out 360 degrees, in all directions.
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I'm using Mink tail and Spade hackle depending on the style and size of the fly I want to tie. wcglass
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Hey, considering the times, what a great way to tie a dry fly without using a hackle feather.
How practical can it get ?
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Hackle fibers, micro-fibbets/paint brush fibers (use these mostly on split-tail spent wing patterns), moose, deer, calftail, gray fox guard hairs, woodduck (and other duck) flank feathers, woodchuck tail fibers and guard hair, and in a pinch - muskrat guard hairs (very stiff). Also Egyptian geese have beautiful barred flank feathers, and don't forget the Hooded-Merganser (hoodie) flank feathers!!
Best regards, Dave S.