Materials up the wazoo

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

I am new to fly tying, and I recently inherited a large amount of materials and tools. Some of it identified, most of it not. I have furs, feathers, hackles, dubbing... I wish I could ask the man who owned this stuff before me, but he has passed on to the great trout stream. I have been able to identify a lot of the pieces (hare, peacock eye, badger, polar bear, pheasant tail, and so on), but some pieces are beyond me. Is there a good book on identifying materials? Are there any super patient senior fly-tyers who can hep me out? I'd also like to know what flies I can tie with these materials, for instance, what on earth do you do with Australian opossum? I would be willing to trade some of the materials for some knowledge.

 

I've attached a photo of one of the boxes I got (this one is the one with fur in it). I have 4 more of these boxes.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[lykos33 0]

Go to Amazon and type in "Fly Tying Materials", there are a few books on the subject, one by Eric Leiser looks like a good resource to me. You can also post pics of each item and have the experts on here answer for you....

Murray

[Piker20 0]

Not the happiest way to recieve materials but lucky you. As far as what you can tie, a lot of materials are interchangeable or at least will be a good variation. For example. Gold bead hares ear nymph. Lots of other furs with a good mix of guard hair and under fur will produce a very similar fly. Have fun and play with whats there and I look forward to seeing the results.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

well I'm sorry to here of your loss and congrats on your gain in that box of fur right off hand I see moose hide, calf or kip tail, rabbit,deer, and I think bison but would need individual pics to be sure

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

OK, here we go. These are the first four pictures. Would it help to have pictures of the backs of these pieces of fur?

 

The second and third pictures are of the same piece, recto-verso

 

[BrookTroutAngler 0]

Well the first one is a calf tail. I could guess on the other ones but I might be wrong. Calf tail is used on upright wings for wulff style flies and can be used in a bunch of other patterns.

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

Thank you Brook Trout Angler!

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

Four more...

 

[SilverCreek 0]

5 looks like muskrat to me. 4 could be squirrel or less likely rabbit. 6 is a guess but could be a red fox or maybe even dyed brown bear hair.

 

The best way to think of fur is that it has under fur and guard hair.

 

Then you look for qualities that would make the under fur good for dry fly or nymph dubbing. For example, check the under fur of what I think is muskrat, the #4 pelt. It should be grey and very soft fine underfur. If it is muskrat, it will be dubbing for an Adams dry fly. You want to grab the hair and snip it at the base, and then pull the long guard hair from it.

 

Other fur such as what I think is squirrel (#4) will have courser under fur and short guard hairs. Cut if off and mix the guard hairs with the underfur for a rough squirrel dubbing.

 

The last piece which could be fox gas very long guard hair. You could use this for streamer hair.

 

So use your imagination and grade the underfur and the guard hair separately and think of uses.

[SilverCreek 0]

Next group,

 

#1 Peccary Javalina Bristles

 

http://www.detteflies.com/files/imagecache/product_full/peccary.jpg

 

2 Carribou?

 

http://www.anglersworkshop.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/d/u/duhcar.jpg

 

http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/NM-780062-0000/71000/Rumpf-Caribou-Hair.html

 

http://www.tackle-craft.com/PDGImages/8693110629520539905_1.jpg

 

3 Moose body

 

4 Deer/elk

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

1.calf tail

2 and 3. bisen hair

4.looks to me like rabbit

5. not sure

6. fox or coyote

second set

 

1. moose mane

2. elk

3. moose body

4. deer

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

actually I think silvercreek is right about the peccary bristles

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

Wow, you are all so helpful. I've labeled the contentious one peccary javalina bristles, it looks right to me.

 

If you all have the will to go on, I will post some more pictures tomorrow, we might just get through the box of fur and move on to the feathers!

[Olaf-Rigaud 0]

On a related subject: how do I store these pieces? I'm thinking about putting them in individual zip-loc type bags and labelling them, is that a good idea? Is there something I need to know about storing little pieces of fur?

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

you nailed it ziplocs labeled and some mothballs and you will be vermin free