Hi Paul I'll try to mae it for sure it's about 1hour away can i ask what is icelandic horse? never heard of it thank for the info. dave
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Paul Marriner Sent: January 3, 2007 5:58 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [VFB]polar bear hair Folks, don't get carried away here. Dave is tying Atlantic salmon flies to use, not for show. He's in Canada, and can buy legal polar bear, it's just that it's too expensive for run-of-the-mill fishing flies. Polar bear has unique qualities, at least as far as I'm concerned I've never seen another hair with the same "shimmer". However, that's not to say that several million Atlantics have refused flies with wings of bucktail, squirrel, goat, bear, fitch, etc., etc.. Many materials have greater mobility than bucktail, but that's not necessarily the desired property, for example, a strong silhouette may be more important. Nevertheless, I'm a fan of Icelandic horse; fine, mobile, easy to use, and less expensive than polar bear, BUT nowhere as cheap as goat (and I'll echo DonO's comment, there are many types of goat hair available). ASIDE: Dave, don't miss the fly-fishing show in Moncton in April. You'll be able to see lots of these materials and talk with numerous fly tiers. cheers Paul Deborah Duran wrote: > > Dave > Deer hair (buck tail is what I'm sure your friend would be referring to) > doesn't move or have the translucency of Polar Bear hair. The polar bear > hair is very easy to dye so I wouldn't worry about the yellow hair unless > you want to dye it a very light color. The goat hair they often refer to > for winging material is supposed to be really nice. Yuri Shumakov used to > market some really nice goat hair but the stuff I've gotten here in the US > is so long a lot of it would go to waste except on a saltwater fly. > Polar bear rugs aren't the best source of hair if they've been used as a > rug. The tips of the hair tend to be broken. From what I hear but I can't > swear to it, it isn't legal to sell polar bear unless you purchase it in the > form of a native American art. I used to see it at fly shows marketed under > wooly worms or something like that from Eskimo art. It was beautiful fur > and it sold for about $25 for 5 sq inches and came with a tag authenticating > it's origin. If you were to find some now you would have to check if it was > legal to mail it out of the country. > I don't think it's illegal to have old polar bear fur I think it's illegal > to sell it. Of course proving the origin of your hair is the difficult > part. I often come across old stock from fly tiers that have passed on but > never really see it in the fly shops. Since you're in Canada you may be > able to find it easier than we can here. > Very soon I think you will have problems with the legality of possessing > polar bear hair. From what I've seen in the news lately they're trying to > get it on the endangered species list so I'm not sure I would bother > collecting a lot of it. Stick to the goat hair if you can find some > suitable to the pattern you want to tie. Yuri's wife and daughter are still > marketing the goat hair he used to sell on their site. > http://www.shumakovtubes.com/ > Regards, > Deb -- Paul Marriner Outdoor Writing & Photography. Owner: Gale's End Press. Member: OWAA & OWC. Author of: A Compendium of Canadian Fly Patterns (co-author), Stillwater Fly Fishing: Tools & Tactics, How to Choose & Use Fly-tying Thread, Modern Atlantic Salmon Flies, Miramichi River Journal, Ausable River Journal, and Atlantic Salmon.
