Tying with Elk hair

[RAB]

Me again. I have a hassle when tying Elk hair caddis or the hair-wing PMD in that I battle to keep the elk hair from flaring when I tie it down . I have tried laying down the thread in two wraps with gentle pressure and then increasing the pressure with the 3rd and 4th wrap - sometimes it works - most times it doesn't. I have also tried taking a loop around the stack of hair before tying it down. With my 10 thumbs the elk hair ends up on the floor. Is there an easy way to do this?

[hcmiller]

RAB,
You might be applying the 3rd. & 4th. wrap toward the wing not on top of the previous wraps.
Make sure the remaining wraps are toward the eye.

Bud

[Normand]

1 trick is to never let go of the hair after the initial wraps of thread. it may take more than the 4-5 wraps to anchor the wing.

u can try 1 0r 2 wraps around the hair bundle before tying to the hook.

[Deezel]

Obviously, without seeing your process, these are just guesses: Use a few more turns of base thread; Tie down the hair with a semi-tight wrap and increase the tightness as you wind the thread towards the eye(left to right for a right hand tyer); Use hair that's the right quality. You want to use the shorter but not solid hair; Try using less hair. Maybe one of these suggestions will help. Good luck.

Deezel

[Al Beatty]

Hi RAB,

Tying with hair can really be frustrating especially when you have the wrong hair. It's been my experience that elk (or deer) hair from the rib/belly area of the animal is very prone to flair and is next to worthless for wings and tail on hair flies. On the other hand it is great for tying muddlers or other spun hair flies. So, when you are tying with deer or elk you want hair from along the backbone, down over the rump, and also down over the shoulder. Usually deer hair butts from this part of the animal is dark gray in color while the rib/belly hair butts is light gray. On an elk it is more difficult to tell by color because the hair is lighter in color and there is major color differences between sexes/age groups. Elk hair for wings and tails should be fairly stiff rather than soft. It sounds to me like you have fairly soft hair which is probably from the wrong part of the animal. I see you are in a part of the world where getting the hair you need could be a problem. Is there any hair you could get from a taxidermist in your part of the world that would work as a substitute? Otherwise you will have to mail order from the US and hope the person making the selection knows the difference in hair qualities. Take care & ...

Tight Lines - Al Beatty
www.btsflyfishing.com

[Litehen55]

I agree with Al on this one. A lot of the problems I had initially were due to hair that was the wrong type for the job. Spend some time on the internet and look at Blue Ribbon Flies, Chris Helms site and others. Makes a huge difference to have the right hair. BRF and Chris both grade the hair very carefully and a piece of the right quaility makes the tying easy and the result much better.

[Fly Tyer]

Al,

Thank you very much for that informative answer. I know that I didnt ask this question, but it was something very important for me to read, I really appreciate it.

-Phil

[Joe Valencic]

Here is the website for Chris Helm: http://www.whitetailflytieing.com/

As Al said, tying with hair from the wrong part of the animal can lead to frustration. Page 14 of Chris' online catalog reiterates what Al and Litehen55 said. It makes for a good read, especially for those just beginning to tie with hair. Personally, I got Chris's DVD on "Spinning Deer Hair," and found that my tying improved 10-fold. Even with that DVD, I still call him up and tell him what I'm tying, and Chris sends just the right hair for the pattern. It's hard to argue with service like that, and there's no extra charge involved.

Joe

[RG/AR]

Easiest way I have found is to stack hair with tips even and tie in by tips. Tips are solid and don't flare much. This has been my best solution to date, and I've been tying a long time.

[bugman]

i had that same problem with flairing.....even when no thread wraps wer over another wrap but all even wraps towards the eye......tried an experiment.....i put a tiny dab of cement on the hairs butts before tyingem in......it worked really well & still does....