Thread Used for Tying Hair Flies

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

To anyone who wants to respond - but I'm very interested in hearing from all you really good 'hair tying' folks - what thread are you using to tie your 'hair' flies? What do you use for tying flies like the Upside-Down Mouse, frogs, etc... - where you are stacking OR spinning - what do you like to use?

 

BCT

 

(did a quick search but... if there is something I can do better to search - please let me know - nothing jumped out the way I searched - so if I can search in a better fashion - let me know how to do so.... thanks)

[Bimini15 0]

I am not good hair tying folk, but I slept at a Holiday Inn last night.

I use UNI Big Fly.

[mikechell 0]

Got a spool of 6# test braided fishing line. Respool some onto an empty thread spool when I want to try deer hair.

My biggest block to getting into it more ... it's freakin' messy !!! Hair clippings all over the place.

[whatfly 0]

There's a lot of merit to mikechell's approach. Will have to get some light PowerPro to see how well that works. Typically, I just use GSP in a couple of different weights (75 & 200 denier) for the biggish stuff, and just 6/0 Danville for the smaller patterns. There are certain situations where I spin, but I much prefer just to stack.

 

That being said, there are easier ways to make poppers, and I pretty much only use spun deer for collars and streamer heads these days.

[cj_dubya 0]

I tie a fair share of deer hair streamer heads. I like GSP... Specifically Veevus 100 or 150.

[TheCream 0]

200 denier Veevus GSP. I use it on everything from large streamers and poppers all the way down to heads on small bugs or micro poppers. I used the exact same thread on all of the flies below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'd add one other thing, I only buy white. Truth is, color does not matter one bit for deer hair flies for me. As you can tell here, you never see it. If for whatever reason you can see it, where you whip finish or whatever, hit it with a Sharpie to color it what you want. No reason to buy every color of GSP you can find, IMO.

[johnnyquahog 0]

Pat Cohen and most of the contemporary expert stackers here seem to use GSP or gelspun and there are good reasons to use the Veevus 200 that Jeff mentioned. Mike George gets incredible results and super dense flies using Danvilles Flymaster+. Don't let anyone tell you kevlar since it cuts through hair and I can't think of any fly tying application it is good for. Tight wraps!

[Kudu 0]

Cream

Wicked lizard. Btw can you get Steve to post your bow river bugger into the sbs. I've never spun or stacked deer but the bugger would be awesome on the Cumberland and I want to learn it.

[deerhairdan 0]

Veevus 200D GSP

 

[cheech 0]

Do whatever De Creeeeeeeam and Wonderboy Dan say. Veevus 200D is the best.

[JSzymczyk 0]

Years ago I tried 6lb FireLine, and it cut the hair almost as good as a razor blade. Kevlar thread cuts horribly too. I use mostly 100 and 200 D GSP, the brand doesn't seem to matter to me. For many years before GSP was widely available, I tie a boatload (maybe more) of deer bugs using 3/0 monocord. Works good once you learn to work with it.

 

All that aside, there is a reason almost every single tier who likes to work in deer hair uses GSP... It's simply the most effective tool for the job, in most circumstances.

[GC59 0]

3/0 or fine mono Danville.

[Dubs 0]

Good to know I'm using the same thing as the cream and dhd... veevus is the only gsp I buy

[TheCream 0]

Cream

Wicked lizard. Btw can you get Steve to post your bow river bugger into the sbs. I've never spun or stacked deer but the bugger would be awesome on the Cumberland and I want to learn it.

 

This one?

 

 

I'm probably going to re-shoot that one sometime in the near future. Stupid camera was losing focus on the trimming portion.

[TheCream 0]

And make no mistake about it, you can cut hair with 200den GSP, too. I've never used Kevlar, and maybe it's worse, but the hair will slice under tension with 200den GSP before the thread will break, in my experience. I have broken the heavy GSP exactly one time when tying a bug, and that was when I had the thread under a lot of tension and the thread hit the hook point.