Hair wing question

[DarrellP 0]

On hairwing flies or streamers, do you stack the bucktail?  Other hair?

[WWKimba 0]

I'll either finger stack or use the stacker - depending on the look I'm going for (meaning what MOOD I'm in at the time!).  It also depends on how the hair looks after it's cut.

Kim

[DarrellP 0]

Thanks Kim

[mikechell 0]

This isn't bucktail ... it's raccoon tail. I seem to get more hits without stacking, like the ones pictured above, but since the pattern gets attention anyway, I don't know if the stacked version is better or worse.  I've stacked it (below), and I kind of like the look ... but I don't think the fish cared. 

[skeet3t 0]

Hey, mike, is your source for raccoon roadkill? Had a friend that couldn't pass up one, He would stop and see what could be salvaged. Got lots of funny looks from those passing by.

[hopperfisher 0]

I use calf tail almost exclusively, you'll see when my swap flies arrive 😉😉. It doesn't stack well...too crinkly. I tie it in and if there any overly long fibers I just pluck 'em out.

 

[DarrellP 0]

Mine look scruffy or buggy.  Take your pick.

[eaglecreekcustom 0]

11 hours ago, DarrellP said:

On hairwing flies or streamers, do you stack the bucktail?  Other hair?

Some flies require stacking and others do not. 

 

Chase

eaglecreekcustom.com

[mikechell 0]

skeet3t, a little of both.  A few tails have come from roadkill, but only if I know it was killed THAT day.  As in, it wasn't there when I drove by the first time, now it is ... the tail's mine!

But we also get overrun from time to time and I have to kill off a few in our yard.  I keep the tails from those ... the rest of it feeds the buzzards.

[flytire 0]

14 hours ago, DarrellP said:

On hairwing flies or streamers, do you stack the bucktail?  Other hair?

yes all the time including calf tail

calf tail wing. just comb it out before stacking

bucktail wing

black bear wing

[DarrellP 0]

Thanks guys.  I think I will try that 

[hopperfisher 0]

3 hours ago, flytire said:

yes all the time including calf tail

calf tail wing. just comb it out before stacking

bucktail wing

black bear wing

flytire...combing before stacking is an interesting concept, do you find that you lose some of the crinkle, and possibly action, in the calf tail when you comb and stack? 

[flytire 0]

3 hours ago, hopperfisher said:

flytire...combing before stacking is an interesting concept, do you find that you lose some of the crinkle, and possibly action, in the calf tail when you comb and stack? 

no

combing the calf tail does not remove the natural kink of each individual hair

it simply unkinks or separates the hairs to make stacking easier and removes the shorter hairs

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I can understand the urge to stack for a hair wing but over many years I've always preferred to use the hair (bucktail, squirrel tail, calf tail, or "other") as it comes from the skin or hide... Here's a pic or two of saltwater bugs to illustrate... 

the top two are bucktail - the bottom one is calftail

my version of Flip Pallot's Prince of Tides, a bendback pattern with bucktail wing

Squirrel collars on my versions of Stu Apte's tarpon pattern

My own "peacock clousers"

 

Since we're working with more materials per fly than most freshwater stuff you have a bit more latitude in what and how they're used... 

[DarrellP 0]

Thanks Captain and Flytire.  It seems to me that most Salmon/ trout/Steelhead  tiers stack the Bucktail and most Salt/warm water tiers don't.  I have seen Clouser tie one of his minnows.  He doesn't stack.  I have been told that the un-stacked ends makes the fly more "translucent".  Who knows.  As John Gierach said, "it is a matter of considerable indifference to the fish."  The stacked patterns are neater on Steelhead flies like Flytires.  But damn, the Captain's flies are amazingly crisp with nothing there that shouldn't be, and nothing left out.