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American Opossum

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Toirtis

 

I have been seeing a lot of things shipping to Canada and not to the U.S. of late. I will see a customs buddy of mine today at a football party and will ask him. Do you still have Cuban cigars up there? I am going to be in upstate N.Y. This summer near Ontario. I have a ton of opossum (fur and some hides) but just got a red fox from my cousin. Not sure how to use it yet but it has that rust colored soft fur I like to tie ausable wullfs with.

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Toirtis I have been seeing a lot of things shipping to Canada and not to the U.S. of late. I will see a customs buddy of mine today at a football party and will ask him. Do you still have Cuban cigars up there?

That is odd....I still have a lot of frustration with American sellers on eBay that will not ship to Canada...even items that have no customs restrictions. I would just love to scoop a few pelts of various species (opossum, nutria, etc) from the US without the hassle and cost of customs.

 

Yes, we have Cubans up here...lots of cigar shops with walk-in humidors full of them. I just had my cousin bring me back a box from her trip to Cuba last week, and a friend that will bring me another when he goes mid-month (bringing them in duty-free means about $10/cigar for the primo brands vs. $30-$50 at the shops).

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Oh man. I love Cuba! I get so upset they won't let us even travel there. I can't even take the trip from Canada because of my work.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean about shipping. I don't like to ship outside the U.S. because or postal service makes it so hard. I just want to use one of those prepaid boxes and be done with it. Heaven forbid one actually has to go down to the P.O. and ship anything. It could take all day. No wonder they are broke and just about out of business. They make it like you should be honored they are even waiting on you. You can forget. Ny help with anything and if you do get some, it's back to the end of the line.

 

PM me and let me know what you are looking for. I don't mind helping a fellow fly tier out. What part of Canada are you in?

 

Ted

 

[email protected]

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Shipping furs from Canada to the U.S or the other way around can be a HUGE pain due to legalities. To legally import just about any pelt or fur you need to first obtain a wildlife import permit. Failing to do so can result in items being seized by customs, fines and even legal troubles if the fur is say illegal in said country. There are a lot of rules that many do not even know about. For example all jungle cock capes that comes into either the U.S or Canada have to have proper permits with them for the importation process. Once they are imported they can be bought and sold without any permits or proof of lawful possesion. But now lets say I take my JC cape from Canada to the U.S on a trip, if I am stopped at customs and cannot provide that permit that the original purchaser had I can get in huge trouble and have the cape seized and perhaps even get fines. This goes as far as just having jungle cock nails on flies you have tied while crossing the boarder.

 

I learned most of this from the owner of a local fly shop that is originally from the U.S. He travels a lot and in most cases has learned the hard way about all these laws in regards to pelts furs and in certain cases feathers.

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Another reason we should invade Canada and make it part of the U.S. territories. !!

I have never seen an American possum with that much fur like the one you want..looks more like australian...

 

Kevin how about coyote fur, i like it better than possum for steel head flies.

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Invade Canada? Are you nuts, they are they only country that like s us:). At least they stand next to us and fight. Unlike the French who left us holding our scrops in our hands In Vietnam.

 

American possum is not all that great. And as you get down here to Texas, it is so warm they barley have any fur. Maybe we could find a use for Armadillo?

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Yeah, dontheo ... I tried doing that road kill thing here in Florida. But try as I might, I cannot find a way to incorporate Armadillo hide into any of my flies. there are a few little hairs here and there, but they aren't much use. I think the eyelashes might make good midge tails, if I tied midges that small.

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use an Armadillo and you have an indestructable fly that will cast like a tank laugh.png

here in Michigan possum in the winter has a very beautiful soft suple coat of fur with an over aboundance of cream colored underfur which takes dyes very well they don't have alot of fat so aren't much trouble fleshing and trapping them isn't that hard or costly as most trappers catch grinners in their coon traps anyways

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I want one of those. Is there a fur company up there that sells them? I have two from here that are tanned. They are nice, but not like that. I like to dye the cream to a burnt orange. The flies where I fish mainly have a bit of orange to them. Maybe the minerals or tannins in the water? The water is clean and pure but is dark due to the abundence of hemlock trees. I don't know if the fish even care or notice, at least the way I presnt flies:). Plus I don't have a lot of time really fishing as I am usually unknotting soomething or pulling some thing out of the bushes. Fly fishing does teach patience.

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Moscow Hide & Fur also has small bags of scraps a lot cheaper so you can experiment. Look in the miscellaneous category when you look at the fur listings. It's in the list on the top left hand side.

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Another reason we should invade Canada and make it part of the U.S. territories. !!

I have never seen an American possum with that much fur like the one you want..looks more like australian...

 

Kevin how about coyote fur, i like it better than possum for steel head flies.

 

I never tyied that. I would like to see how it is.

 

Kevin

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