A buddy just dropped by a piece of fur he told me about finding some time ago when a friend’s cabin flooded… I had not thought much about it because flooded rugs do not usually lead to good tying materials.
And 50-year-old rugs have usually been stained and the hair ruined, before any chance for the flood to do the job.
Shocked! It is 80+ square inches of beautiful white fluffy polar bear! To be legal the bear had to have been taken prior to the 1972 Marine Mammals Protection Act. And there is paperwork showing when it was and when the rug was made. I often get offers to buy polar bear, both legal and not, but most is not worth the effort and illegal stuff is absolutely never considered…
Congratulations! It must be payback for good karma. It couldn’t have gone to a better guy. Please post photos of some of the patterns you use it on. I have a tiny one square inch of Polar Bear fur in my collection which I picked up years ago. When I happen to tie a pattern that suggests polar bear fur, I use white fur from a striped skunk which is the closest I’ve found (but not really that close). Well done.
Hope that was in jest… Have spoken to USFWS Officers a number of times about such and that is not their belief. But seeing the CA thing, that may very well change the local attitude. I believe CA law says you cannot even have pre-'72 polar bear there. Many AK living rooms would horrify a CA officer… between ivory, baleen, Native crafts with polar bear and sea otter fur… and much more.
It is all good as far as I care. No offense taken, intended, or even hinted at.
A very popular fly here with much history is the Alaska Mary Ann. I tie many, many of them. Most of the display box collections I have done include an AMA.
One strong suggestion is to tie it in backward and fold it back and tie down. If you build the body over the hair butts it will not slip out. Wolverine is almost equally slippery, BTW.
I found a video on tying the Alaska Mary Ann, nice looking streamer, I would think it would be good on the Chattahoochee where shad come through the spillway into the start of the trout inhabited part of the river.
I was given a nice clump of polar bear hair some time ago. Discovered that polar bear hair is not white but actually clear and hollow. It can be dyed really easily.
Makes a good substitute anywhere you might use bucktail, or calftail or other similar hair.
Cannot disagree, but prefer the reciprocal description…
Any number of hairs make marginal substitutes for polar bear! Look at it from below under varying light conditions and you will see why it is “the” hair.
ha ha!
Have spoken to USFWS Officers a number of times about such and that is not their belief. But seeing the CA thing, that may very well change the local attitude. I believe CA law says you cannot even have pre-'72 polar bear there. Many AK living rooms would horrify a CA officer… between ivory, baleen, Native crafts with polar bear and sea otter fur… and much more.