I am having a problem in achieving good fuzzy bodies using Uni brand mohair yarn. There always seems to be a heavy strand of non-mohair within the yarn. It’s almost like the yarn is wound on a plastic cord as you would make a dubbing rope. Am I doing something wrong or is my material at fault? I stroke the wraps back as I wind but this cord-like strand keeps coming up as loops along the way.
Don’t overthink mohair. Lift it up above the hook as you wrap and sweep back as much as possible…then wrap. Wrap it tightly and the body will fall in place.
Ray,
I use mohair quite a bit especially for leeches. When I tie, I try to stroke the long mohair fibers out to one side of the yarn so that they naturally lay down towards the rear of the fly as I wrap the yarn towards the eye of the hook. Then I use hook and loop fastener (the hook side) to tease up the fibers.
I find plain old mohair yarn purchased off of ebay does as good or better than the stuff sold specifically for fly tying. I have quite a bit of black mohair if you’d like to try some just send me your mailing address via PM and I get some out to you.
Jim Smith
What I’ve found works best is to “unwind” the mohair a bit and not palmer it too close together. Give it a little breathing room!
I pick the hairs out with a metal comb, or you can use a toothbrush, or a bodkin…tease it out quite a bit, and that will help. I also like to wrap the fly with a thin copper ribbing to help it last longer.
After I have tied in the end of the mohair at the tail tie-in point, I take an old toothbrush and brush the mohair strand good before palmering up the hook shank. As I palmer, I always stroke the mohair fibers back. Try brushing the mohair before wrapping and see if that helps.
Uni Mohair, in fact I think all of the mohair yarn that I have ever seen, has a core around which the mohair is. You have been given several ways to make your flies shaggy and I expect that all of them will work.
Ed