Costal Deer Hair

[rvrwader]

I was going through all my deer hair and I ran across a piece that I labeled Costal Deer Hair Neck Area. It has been a while and I have no idea what I bought this for. Any ideas what I can use this for? I was thinking possibly comparaduns but it doesnt look like it will flair properly.

Thanks in Advance

[maodiver]

Living in CA, and knowing a lot of deer hunters, I get so much coastal deer hair, if you are talking pacific coast blacktail, a subspecies of mule deer. I use it in place of deer hair, using the types of hair interchangably, and in place of elk hair in a lot of patterns too. Probably because I am not too finicky about following pattern recipes exactly.

[KeatonsDad2]

I have had good luck using coastal deer in comparadun wings.

[ScottP]

I've bought a few packs of coastal that wouldn't flare very well and just used them for downwing patterns instead:


X2 Caddis




Chuck's Caddis Variant (this pattern has a little calf body hair on top of the deer)




Yellow Sally





Learned my lesson about buying deer hair for winging in packs and now get all my stuff from Blue Ribbon Flies. When it comes to deer hair (and pretty much everything else) those folks know what their talking about.

Regards,
Scott

[NewTyer 1]

I saw a video of someone using coastal deer hair, I think it was Dave McPhail. He was looking for the black tip fibers to use. If I can find it I'll post it. Meantime try YouTube and see what comes up.

[planettrout]

I get most of my deer hair from these guys:

http://www.worleybuggerflyco.com/nat..._deer_hair.htm

...good stuff and my local shop carries it...I use Coastal deer for most of my Caddis dries, in smaller sizes...

Here is a good article on what to look for in a Coastal Deer patch coloration:

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/fotw...tw20100719.php




PT/TB

[EdD]

Theoretically coastal deer hair is less inclined to flair. I've heard of people who prefer it for collars, but not heads, of muddler minnows.

Ed

[Steven]

Useful for comparadun hair, small caddis and the like.

[Allan]

I saw a video of someone using coastal deer hair, I think it was Dave McPhail. He was looking for the black tip fibers to use. If I can find it I'll post it. Meantime try YouTube and see what comes up.

I was taught NOT to use hair with black tips. The reason being that the black tips are solid and therefore not bouyant. If you're going to be tying flies that require some, but not a lot of flare like comparaduns, you should examine 'coastal' hair and make sure the piece has hair that is straight, of uniform length, has hardly any underfur and does not have black tips. You can also find whitetail deer with the same properties. It all depends on many factors like time of the year when the deer was killed, its age, geographic location, and other factors. Regardless of the type of deer: coastal, mule, whitetail, dwarf, sitka, etc. hair with black tips for floating flies is usually a no no.

Allan

[Byron haugh]

Odd, When I was in Blue Ribbon Flies (basically home of the modern comparadun) they helped me pick deer hair for sparkle duns. You do want black tips, but the shortest possible. You want just as short of black tip as possible. Believe me, the hair works very well.
Also, in one of Craig Mathews' videos, he explains about selecting deer hair with the extremely short black tips.