whatfly 0 Report post Posted December 24, 2015 Sorry, the mystical qualities of seal and polar bear have been way overblown IMHO, and myth is perpetuated by those fortunate enough to still have access, as well as those who are selling the stuff at premium prices in the area where old skins and coats are the sole source. The historical PNW steelhead patterns that once called for polar bear and seal are now tied with angora goat or arctic fox and guess what, they are still effective. I'm not trying to convince the old timers, driven by tradition and blinded by past practices, just trying to make sure that the new tiers keep an open mind on these sorts of topics. I made the mistake of chasing rare materials when I was starting out due to threads like these, and guess what? Did not make a bit of difference. Now if you are obsessed by the need to tie historically accurate patterns, that is a different matter (and good luck because much of the stuff is either expensive or illegal), but for fishing flies, no need to bother. Now watch the hidebound traditionalists come out of the woodwork... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted December 24, 2015 LOL I am not related to W.C. ... that I know of. But like him, I hate kids. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltybum 0 Report post Posted December 25, 2015 Yeah, why I never wanted kids either is they are expensive and they'll break MY expensive toys. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adam Saarinen 0 Report post Posted December 25, 2015 Yep! No kids playing STARWARS with fly rods at my place!:-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Poopdeck 0 Report post Posted December 25, 2015 Sometimes we give to much credit to fish on thier intelligence. Sometimes people just like to show you flies tied from PB. Sometimes people even pick up nasty road kill to tie with. To each their own but I highly doubt that all this PB hair comes from unwanted rugs. i also dont believe people are poaching PB's for the fly tying black market. I really don't care about PB's since I think PB's are doing just fine and have plenty of guardians out there. What I'm curious about is just how much PB hair do you get for a couple hundred dollars? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ol'DirtyCaster 0 Report post Posted December 25, 2015 A 1 gallon ziploc full of trimmings is about 50$ Canadian (47 or so US) a 2"×2" patch of the longer stuff is about 8$. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
johnnyquahog 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2016 Thought I'd dig up this 3 month old thread. In the early days of ebay you would often see this stuff for sale. Then all of a sudden if the word "p o l a r" was in the description someone would call the ebay police and the listing would be gone. I saw today that a 9" x 9" square is listed at $200. However the hair length is only 1.5" so suitable for maybe salmon and bonefish flies. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dave G. 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2016 I'll stick with Syn-Yak, it's cheap and it works fine in a few of my streamer patterns. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikechell 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2016 Regardless of cause, "Man-made" or natural occurrences, global warning IS happening. Polar Bear habitat is disappearing. The possibility of Polar Bear extinction is very real. Complaining that we don't have THAT fur to tie with is ... ignorant. (look up "ignorant" ... I am not calling any one "stupid") Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NoSlack 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2016 Maybe Polar bears will migrate back south, cross breed with brown bears.... get a back cross...?? Anyways Polar Bears (brown bears) migrated north some 250 000 yrs ago... they adapted... i'm sure some species will... well they have to or..... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
heavynets 0 Report post Posted March 28, 2016 In most studied areas polar bear populations are stable, some are declining, some are growing, but most regions are not studied. And there is much data that global warming is not happening. However, there are hard facts documenting data manipulation to show global warming. Even the PBSG seems to have an agenda which I suspect has its basis in "global warming". Here is the statement that the PBSG proposes to insert as a footnote in their forthcoming Circumpolar Polar Bear Action Plan draft: “As part of past status reports, the PBSG has traditionally estimated a range for the total number of polar bears in the circumpolar Arctic. Since 2005, this range has been 20-25,000. It is important to realize that this range never has been an estimate of total abundance in a scientific sense, but simply a qualified guess given to satisfy public demand. It is also important to note that even though we have scientifically valid estimates for a majority of the suyybpopulations, some are dated. Furthermore, there are no abundance estimates for the Arctic Basin, East Greenland, and the Russian subpopulations.Consequently, there is either no, or only rudimentary, knowledge to support guesses about the possible abundance of polar bears in approximately half the areas they occupy. Thus, the range given for total global population should be viewed with great caution as it cannot be used to assess population trend over the long term.” [my bold] Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/05/scientist_confesses_he_made_up_polar_bear_population_estimates.html#ixzz44EVRN27i Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites