Bob VanAmburg wrote:
My experience is that Caribou floats the best, followed by Deer, with Elk a distant third. �Antelope floats better than elk but not as well as good deer hair.Thanks to all for the excellent info. The URL Allan Fish supplied led to a marvelous resource about use of hairs in fly tying.
<http://www.globalflyfisher.com/staff/helm/selecting/index.html>
It is as comprehensive as everything else in the wonderful Global Flyfisher site.
I was particularly interested in evaluating my growing collection of hair, especially a generously sized pelt of Caribou/ Reindeer hair received in the recent materials swap so ably put together by Eddie Dillon.
The Caribou came from across the pond, so we will be discrete about names here, but I was fascinated by the fineness of Caribou hair, it's really remarkable stuff. Thank you GC.
Now to have another lister say he ranks Caribou in general as the #1 floater is really a bonus. (At least he didn't say the stuff sinks like a brick). I can see uses for Caribou in several favorite patterns, and this provides the impetus to devote time to tying with this new material, with odds that good patterns will be even better.
Again thanks to all for your responses.
Wes Wada
Bend, Oregon
"Those who would stop to save the village idiot are all saints."
