Why Is Elk Hair so commonly used for Caddis Wings as opposed to some short Texas Deer hair ?
The colors can be matched , must it have to do with the texture or the floatation ?
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Why Is Elk Hair so commonly used for Caddis Wings as opposed to some short Texas Deer hair ?
The colors can be matched , must it have to do with the texture or the floatation ?
I use whatever hair seems to have the right texture and color. I don't much care if it is elk or deer. Elk seems to be a little lighter in weight for the size of the hair and seems to work better on larger flies. I find it too large to use for smaller caddis like size 16-18.
Ted
Hans Weilenmann's CDC & Elk is tied with deer hair (in spite of the name). Deer hair comes in a wide variety of colors, textures, and lengths and seems to be a common choice for caddis fly wings these days. I use different hair somewhat interchangeably depending on what I want to achieve.
A good read on hair selection:
https://midcurrent.com/flies/fly-tying-hair-selection/
PT/TB
In PRODUCTIOB FLY TYING A.K. Best suggests that it is the easy availability of elk hair in the western states where the fly first became popular. He said that he always uses whitetail deer hair for his elk hair caddis and feels that it is more durable.
I pretty much agree with Ted, although I do have some fine elk that I've used on 18s.Quote:
Originally Posted by tedshuck
Regards,
Scott
I find that the elk hair does not flair as much as the whitetail hair. I thought (maybe mistakenly) that was the reason it was used for caddis flies.
It’s pretty complicated. There iscow elk hair and bull elk hair. There are early season elk and late season elk.
Similar with deer. Also depends on the location of the hair on the animals.