horse hair for tails?

[Modad2010 0]

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum and pretty new to tying flies. I recently came across and old violin bow that had been strung up with white horse tail hair. The hairs had all come loose from the bow so I gathered bunch up. When I cut a bundle of 8-10 hairs and cut them to a length of about 2 inches they seemed like they could be stiff enough to use for tailing a dry fly or flexible enough to wrap a body. Has anyone used horse hair for this purpose? How well did it work? Thanks in advance.

[Crackaig 0]

The problem is that the hair doesn't taper. Great for bodies, especially if you get two different colours to wind together. The earliest example of this I know of is John Goddard's Footballer Buzzer a small chironomid pupa imitation. More renown for introducing the concept of tying the pupa around the bend of the hook, than for its use of horse hair.

I suppose that if you don't mind the lack of taper then you could use them for tails.

Cheers,

C.

[SilverCreek 0]

For larger flies I like moose mane or hock.

 

http://midcurrent.com/flies/fly-tying-hair-selection/

 

 

For smaller flies I use "microfibbets" but not the expensive commercial fly shop kind. I wait until there is a Joann's coupon and buy one of the cheaper art brushes with the flat tip. You can get a brush like the one below for about $4.

 

Microfibbets and artist paint brushes are identical. Note the tiny parachute fly below with the fan tail of paint brush fibers. Also note that I have cut fibers off the left side of the paint brush. Since the fibers are lined up on the brush, there is no need to "stack" the fibers before tying them in.

[djtrout 0]

I use icelandic horsehair for wings and streamer tails. very fine stuff and popular in iceland for creating char patterns.