Polar bear hair

[niveker 0]

1 hour ago, Poopdeck said:

https://www.thetaxidermystore.com/all-products/polar-bear-hair-hide-for-fly-tying-or-crafts-for-sale-21227.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv7fXn9m88QIVpG5vBB2-1gAhEAQYAyABEgLjUfD_BwE

BTW, I thought polar bear hide was black.  Does that pigment come out in the tanning process?  Or am I misinformed?  

[flytire 0]

do not be fooled by a 1 inch square of polar bear hide for $15

there isn't much usable guard hairs to even tie a few Alaska Mary Anne or any other hair wing fly for that matter

most of the hairs will be clipped and not in their natural tapered shape. i have one piece of polar bear that i bought way back in the 1980's (without papers) and I probably got 4-5 flies out of it. the rest is just crap. until i can find a good piece of polar bear, I'll just substitute with bucktail. i don't tie museum quality flies but i do like to adhere to original recipes where practicable. I'm more of a traditional tyer than others

as to the hide color, that's a good question for a google search. i wouldn't care if the hide was purple since the hide isn't used in fly tying

$$$ for a 9 inch square of polar bear is expensive to someone who normally doesn't tie flies that uses this traditional material for tying salmon flies but for that particular tyer its perfectly fine. people pay ridiculous prices for other things, why not this one (LAW vise $6900+) 🤪 its their money they're spending, not yours

[skeet3t 0]

Couldn't calf tail be used here?

Quote

why not this one (LAW vise $6900+)

Read a magazine yesterday and found Holland & Holland .500 NE for $172,500. October, 1998, I held a H&H SXS .410 at $75,000. Haven't heard, check must have gotten lost in the mail. The old saying- If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

[SilverCreek 0]

15 minutes ago, skeet3t said:

Couldn't calf tail be used here?

Calf hair would not have the same effect nor would arctic fox hair and other "substitutes" suggested for polar bear hair.

Polar bear hair is hollow and internally reflects light so it has a transluscent appearance that solid materials cannot duplicate.

Photos from the link below.

https://snowbrains.com/polar-bears-fur-not-white/

[Mark Knapp 0]

I have polar bear hair, it looks like nothing else that I have. Will fish know? I don't know. Will they care? Probably not. I have caught lots of nice fish on polar bear flies but I may have caught them anyway on flies made with other materials.

Using old, legal hides will not harm live bears today in any way.

My polar bear hair has a lot of really good hair for every square inch. It came from a hide that fell apart in a museum, and was from a bear taken 20 years before the ban. I have semi-good provenance on my pieces but I have been advised by my local USF&W guy that I should not sell it (I don't want to) but I can tie flies with it and sell the flies if I want to.

 

 

[upnorthtier 0]

the law must be different here in Canada. quite a few shops carry polar bear, goes for 7$ to 10$ cad for 2x2 patch. anyway I know where's a stuffed 12ft, might bring a pair of scissors with me next time I go for a burger there. 

[Mark Knapp 0]

8 minutes ago, upnorthtier said:

the law must be different here in Canada. quite a few shops carry polar bear, goes for 7$ to 10$ cad for 2x2 patch. anyway I know where's a stuffed 12ft, might bring a pair of scissors with me next time I go for a burger there. 

The US has the most restrictive fish and wildlife laws of the western world. Laws on the use of ivory are much less restrictive in Canada (and most other countries) too.

[SilverCreek 0]

13 minutes ago, upnorthtier said:

the law must be different here in Canada. quite a few shops carry polar bear, goes for 7$ to 10$ cad for 2x2 patch. anyway I know where's a stuffed 12ft, might bring a pair of scissors with me next time I go for a burger there. 

They are. Canada may be the only country that allows non indigenous hunting of polar bears. Unfortunately, even if taken legally, they cannot be brought into the USA even if they were taken BEFORE the US law became active.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/why-canada-is-still-stuck-with-our-dead-polar-bears/450339/

[niveker 0]

11 minutes ago, upnorthtier said:

might bring a pair of scissors with me next

Funny, reminds me of something I read on another site not too long ago:

Someone had a friend and fellow fly tyer who was a guide or guard at a spot that had a stuffed polar bear on display.  After the gentleman passed away,  his replacement found a large shaved spot on the backside of the polar bear nearest the wall, apparently taken by his predecessor  to tie flies.  

 

[upnorthtier 0]

28 minutes ago, SilverCreek said:

Unfortunately, even if taken legally, they cannot be brought into the USA

probably where all the hair in the shops come from.

[Mark Knapp 0]

25 minutes ago, upnorthtier said:

probably where all the hair in the shops come from.

They are all being warehoused for the day that Americans can bring them home (if ever)

[skeet3t 0]

3 hours ago, Mark Knapp said:

They are all being warehoused for the day that Americans can bring them home (if ever)

And they will bring high prices. Me? I would opt for another fly. I survive here in the southeast on 6-8 patterns. I use materials I find under the bird feeder, parks, etc.

[RexW 0]

12 hours ago, niveker said:

BTW, I thought polar bear hide was black.  Does that pigment come out in the tanning process?  Or am I misinformed?  

There's a reference in the description about using a "stock photo".  So, that may not be a photo of polar bear hair.  

[Mark Knapp 0]

2 hours ago, skeet3t said:

And they will bring high prices. Me? I would opt for another fly. I survive here in the southeast on 6-8 patterns. I use materials I find under the bird feeder, parks, etc.

No, they have already been paid for by the hunters and owned by those hunters. Currently, some import laws on exotic species (elephant for example) state they cannot be sold or used as raw material (it has to stay what it is forever)

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I still have a pound or two of polar bear - from years and years ago... Back in the sixties and seventies enterprising souls down here in the lower 48 would scrounge up old moth-eaten polar bear rugs - then cut them up for sale piece by piece... I very carefully never used the slightest bit of it in my commercial tying years and only now as the hair is yellowed and not in particularly good condition am I starting to use a bit of it... Polar hair has some unique characteristics that other hairs don't have... The first is that it turns translucent when wet, something that works well when you're working up streamers that imitate small fry or young bait - that is also translucent... The other characteristic that makes it unique is that unlike bucktail,  polar hair is quite durable and a strike from something with razor sharp teeth doesn't cut it at all (very handy if fishing barracuda or mackeral type fish that normally shred a fly or jig with a single bite..).  I have several barracuda patterns that were designed specifically to take advantage of polar's durability (and it's longer tapered hairs... ).

Recently I've also been using a bit of it for clouser-style flies with good results... this particular batch is a very simple "clouser" using only a 1/0 Mustad 34007 hook, bead chain eyes, and a bit of pearl Flashabou with the entire wing just a single clump of polar bear hair on one side of the hook (with a good bit of the underfur left on the base of the hair... The snook I fed them to on a short night trip in the Jupiter area couldn't get enough of them.... Since the fish were holding in docklights you could actually watch them from the moment they saw the fly until the take - great fun.

these were smaller male snook, nothing bigger than 24" that were feeding on small bait in every docklight I checked (and they'll  be there every night this summer...