What hair for wings?

[stinky 0]

What kind of hair do you guys like for wings on flies?

[Trichoptera 0]

I tied some Royal Wulffs this afternoon using Kid Goat hair. It was nice to work with; a lot easier than calf tail or even calf body hair.

[stinky 0]

Right on that's what I wanted know.

Thanks.

 

Anyone else?

[Hot Tuna 0]

Don't forget the humble poly yarn especially for parachute posts........as far as real hair my favorite is coastal deer hair which I use on both caddis patterns and compara/sparkle duns. Both of these materials are inexpensive and work well.

HT

[phg 0]

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. Elk, moose, and deer hair are hollow, so they add flotation to your fly, but, for the same reason, tend to flair when you tighten the thread down. Calftail doesn't like to stack, but does make a nice wing on larger salmon/steelhead flies. Bucktail doesn't stack well either, but doesn't flair as badly as body hair.

 

I agree that calf body hair can be difficult to work with, and if you prefer working with kid, that's fine. I also like poly for wing posts on parachute flies, and have tied a few dryflies with poly that worked pretty well. I have also used woodchuck hair, which works pretty well as well.

 

Don't be afraid to experiment, but don't turn your nose up at traditional materials and methods. There are usually good reasons why certain materials became the standard.

 

 

[Joe Hard 0]

Snowshoe rabbit is a great one.

[masterbass 0]

i love calf tail

[RoyalWulff 0]

Personally,

 

all black gnats i see use black/grey/white duck feather for wings, I find it slow to work with and i am not good enough to set them properly. So i use black calf tail.... boy is it beauty to work with. looks cool too!