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Bigwater

calf tail curl

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How do you take out the curled and twisted end of a calf tail.

 

 

Steam it gently.

Thanks,I've tried that, but no luck.

 

yes that's what I meant by "good luck, let us know how it works".... I guess sarcasm is difficult to express on a message board.

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I seem to recall Leroy Hyatt (Fly Tying: the Angler's Art) saying he saved the tips with the curl to use in the front *wing* of steelhead bombers. He liked the curl and utilized it in the pattern. It added to the waking capabilities of a riffle-hitched bomber as it skates across the river.

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How do you take out the curled and twisted end of a calf tail.

 

 

Steam it gently.

Thanks,I've tried that, but no luck.

 

yes that's what I meant by "good luck, let us know how it works".... I guess sarcasm is difficult to express on a message board.

I understand sarcasm,but I was looking for usefull information.Thanks,time for another beer.

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Bigwater,

 

I can appreciate your interest in using the tip end of a calftail. I also have been using a lot of calftail for many years (Steelhead flies from the 60's and 70's and bonefish going back to the late 70's.) The hair on the end is quite translucent and one of my favorite materials. One of the things I do is I buy them usually 2 dozen at a time, comb them out, pick out the best dozen and sell the others to someone else. I think you'll be surprised what combing them real good will do.

 

Mel

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I take the curled ends push them together and slide the hair into my fly tying vise jaws and tighten down the vise and leave it clamped for a couple hours it works pretty good

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A very old thread... had the fun of re-reading what I wrote back in 2012 - and wouldn't change a word... Hope someone somewhere can find a use for that part of the calftail... I call them kiptails since my earliest mentors (one of them a fishing partner of Joe Brooks...) always called them that...  The good news for all of us is that as long as there's still a demand for veal.. we'll never run out of calf tails.

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I just don't use that part when I want straight hair. I use it for something else. For me, the curly ones make a fine bright spot for Wolff type flies to track dry flies when they go down stream. When I need a straight post for parachutes, I use straighter hairs from the rest of the tail, another of type fur or synthetics. Is this what you are getting at?

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I vote go with the flow, as Kirk said.  I've had no luck using calf hair; it''s too short generally to use with larger hooks.  It's straight, though.

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Why not just use the white part of a bucktail if you're looking for something straighter?

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it's a natural thing with calf's they all have a twist at the tail. wait till they grow up the hair gets straighter!

 

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