Quite a while ago, I mentioned how good the deer hair was at Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone. It got a few folks agitated.
One fellow said that Jimmy’s All Season Angler in Idaho Falls had the best deer hair. I couldn’t dispute that because I had only visited Jimmy’s back in the early 80’s when he had a store in Pocatello.
This trip, I made a point to stop by Jimmy’s in Idaho Falls as I had stocked up on deer hair at Blue Ribbon and thought I might get an even better selection at Jimmy’s.
Well, let me explain what I found: Jimmy’s is a very nice shop. It is well stocked and a good sized shop. Jimmy and his staff are very friendly.
The deer hair selection is a board which contains the pre-packaged “Nature’s Spirit” hair. Not at all a great selection of deer hair - as compared to the big wooden bins of unpackaged deer hair at BRF in West Yellowstone.
If you want to pick through bins and bins of deer hair, elk hair, etc. stop at Blue Ribbon Flies in West Yellowstone, MT.
… I followed up my comment about Jimmy’s with another post pointing out that my earlier comment ( that Jimmy’s has the best deer hair available ) was ridiculous or absurd or ludicrous or something like that.
I believe I also made the point in the follow up post that for anyone who has not been in all the fly shops in the country and checked out all the other sources of deer hair wherever they may be is not in position to claim that a particular shop has the best deer hair available.
As to checking out bins and bins of deer hair looking for the best, what’s the point ?? It doesn’t take the best deer hair to tie flies that catch fish. I, for one, would rather tie a fly that will work and go fish than spend time in a fly shop looking at stuff. Maybe these guys, from a few days ago …
…
… wouldn’t be discriminating enough for you, eating flies tied with deer hair bought at Jimmy’s, but they would bring a smile to most fly anglers I know. :shock:
I have hit shops all across the country, as when ever we travel I always try to make a stop into the local shop to find out what kind of fishing is around, along with looking for new materials. I’ve never come across a shop that has deer hair that wouldn’t make a good fly. The main difference is price versus quantity, depending on how easily they can obtain it from local sources. Here in Wyoming, it’s very cheap at my local shop for instance, and the closer you get to Yellowstone the more expensive it gets.
Overall, I think having different seasons and types of deer is the greater good. I once ventured into a shop that had natural colored deer hair in a half dozen different shades and types. While certainly not needed, I like being able to use different types and colors of deer hair for some of my flies.
Personally I have purchased hair from many distributors and from BRF and Chris Helms. My times when you order hair from different shops there is no telling what your going to get. When someone askes me where to buy hair I recommend BRF and CH. They is hair in my bin that is not very good. It is bent curved and has broken tips. Since I tye Compara duns. X Caddis and cdc and deer I like to have my tips even. With bass flies it most likely doesn’t matter.
John,
I did not see your retraction of that comment.
The hair products at BRF are patches cut from hand selected, locally supplied hides. As the “Home of the Sparkle Dun”, they certainly have exceptional hair for the Sparkle Duns and Comparadun patterns.
By having bins of such select patches, it offers you the opportunity to select the hair for the particular size flies you want to tie.
Pre-packaged “Spirit River” hair doesn’t allow the tier the opportunity to make such selections. If you call BRF and ask Bucky, Jackie or others to select a particular type of hair for you, they will do it.
As Craig Mathews says in his video of tying the Sparkle Dun, if your flies don’t come out well, it could likely be the use of inappropriate deer hair.
One does not have to personally visit all the fly shops in the nation to locate the best deer hair. These days, if you listen to others, you can order the best available materials by phone or internet.
There are deer hair patches which would be great for tying a size 14; and there would be patches which would be great for a size 18. That is why it is good to personally go through bins or ask the staff to do so for you so that you get the best product for your needs.
Haven’t been to either Blue Ribbon or Jimmy’s in a couple of years, but the last time I was there, I was very dissappointed by how much of space in Blue Ribbon was taken up by shirts, and miscellaneous clothing, instead of tying supplies. Jimmy’s by comparison had a MUCH better variety of supplies. It seemed that Blue Ribbon’s interest in fly tying was diminishing over the years that I visited them, which was sad considering what a treat it used to be to comb through their materials, when I first started visisting their store.
They do have some good patches of hair at Blue Ribbon, but as with any shop, I’ve gotten much better hair when I’ve actually gone to the store and picked out the patches, than when I ordered them directly from the BRF online. As far as Nature’s Spirit, I have had the most consistent luck with their product, so I for one am one of their fans. All the other pre-packaged supplies are mostly hit and miss, with some being worse than others. YMMV.
Regarding my “retraction”, maybe you can find your earlier thread and post a link ??
One cutt was caught on a salmonfly pattern and the other on a golden stone.
John
P.S. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting that the deer hair at BFR is not excellent and that you do not get excellent service there. Throwing Chris Helms into the equation, from what many others have said about him, tends to balance the scales, but now I really don’t know which is best ??
Note - it is possible and acceptable in the shops I’ve been in to open the Spirit River packs and inspect the contents. Even then, I recently acquired an inferior patch of humpy deer hair from a major Spirit River vendor ( not Jimmy’s ). That’s on me, not on them.
Deer/elk hair for hoppers & attractors - not too picky; I’ve used hair I bought from the tying “sections” of Walmart and big box sporting goods stores and caught lots of fish
Deer/elk hair for small Hair-wing Duns
Chuck’s Caddis Variant
Garcia’s Mini Hot
CDC & Elk
I want the good stuff. Blue Ribbon has the good stuff, lots of it, and it’s not in bags so it’s easy to sort through and find exactly what I want. Whether it’s literally “the best” or not, I couldn’t give a rats’ hind quarters; it’s the best I’ve come across and since I’m doing this for my enjoyment, I make it a point to stop there whenever I’m lucky enough to be in the area. And, getting the chance to talk to Craig and Jackie Mathews, John Juracek, Bucky McCormick, folks who have done so much for the sport and are willing to share their wit and knowledge, well hell, I’m not going to pass that up.
