Hares ear mask options for dubbing variations

[DonO1]

The photo below shows 7 options for hare's mask flies. They are all rope-dubbed, using no loops or wax, on 2# test clear & smoke mono tying thread. This is how I tie them- your methods may vary. You may try this at home- no adult supervision required.

Hare's ears assort. 2-numbered-1200.jpg

Dubbing: (@ right) finger-blended, spikey hare's mask dubbing, with chopped (1/4") fine gold flashabou dubbing to give it the gold sparkle underwater, replacing the rib.

Hare's mask cheek for tails and wings or soft hackles.

Fly #1. Dubbing roped-dubbed on as a brush with guard hair tips as hackles.

Fly #2. Body rope-dubbed with cree saddle hackle roped in with the dubbing, not palmered after. This does not allow the fish teeth to cut the hackle = durable. Note that the hackles are dispersed throughout the dubbing.

Fly #3. Tailed heavy-body hair's ear with soft wing- photo doesn't show segments as much as there are. Typical for all. Also, don't over-do the gold. Look at them underwater to see if you have the right proportion for the sparkle you want.

Fly #4. Larger segmented hare's ear with squirrel wing.

Fly #5. Smaller slim-bodied hare's ear, more classic wet-style, with gold bead and squirrel wing.

Fly #6. Smaller classic winged hare's ear nymph with turkey round tail and wing-casing, using wing-casing tips folded back for legs. Segmented abdomen shows up well in the water.

Fly #7. Classic soft-hackle hare's ear, but using a pearl underbody and gap-wrapping a very fine rope of hare's mask tips so that the pearl shines through. Partridge soft hackles.

Photo below shows some un-finished hare's mask rope-dubbed bodies with a large proportion of the spikey hairs blended in, with most of the under-hairs removed. I cut a lot of short, spikey hair from the ears and blended that in with the mask dubbing from between the eyes. They have segmentation, but it?s very hard to see with the camera. Any of these flies can be followed up with gold ribbing wire in the crease of the segment, but I don't find a difference in the effectiveness if I have the gold flash blended in.

Nothing I do is a rule, recipe, or goal- it's just the way I do them, and I'm always experimenting to make flies simpler and faster to tie and more appealing to the fish. Tying these on a wire core would make the flies heavier and even more durable.

4 hare's ear bodies.jpg
Since this is about hare's ear, I've left it at that. One way to get even spikier hare's ear nymphs is to blend squirrel-mask hairs with your dubbing- about 50/50 does it up dandy.