Marabou or Hair

[Ugie Fisher]

i have fished with both marabou and hair wing flies and i have to preffer hair. The marabou gives a lovely action in streamy water but looses its shape in slow glides and pools where as the hair stays the same and doesnt need to be retrieved to get movement in it. But what do you think??{;

[Teifi-Terrorist]

I never fish with marabou for sewin to be honest UgieFisher, don't know why, just never have. Having said that, I think that you acheive nearly the same mobility and movement with some of the softer furs present on the market nowadays, such as arctic fox belly fur, rabbit fur etc.

You have to be a little careful when tying with such soft materials though, as people to tend to use too little of the fur when tying. These materials flatten very easily and become extremely streamlined, so I prefer to use quite a lot when tying in. View the material when wet, it changes completely from what may initially look bulky to a relatively streamlined pattern.

TT.

[Glyn]

I use both in my patterns, a pattern that works well for me in daytime high water is a cascade type pattern tyed on low water salmon doubles up to size 4. tail.. black hair 3 to 3.5" long on top of pearl flash of the same length, plain silver tinsel body and for the wing a good bunch of black marabou the same length as the body finished off with JC cheeks.
Fished fast across a good streamy run this is a good fly that takes fish well.
cheers Glyn

[Ugie Fisher]

Thanks TT and glyn for your replies and i will bare them in mind the next time i am at the bench.

TT, all the arctic fox i can get is only about 1" long and curved. Do you know of anywhere that sell good furs for tubes and the like?

[Teifi-Terrorist]

Glyn; good to see you Sunday mate. Also, thanks for the input.

UgieFisher; There's a very good supplier names Foxy-Tails. I can highly recommend her services and prices. It would seem that her site is currently being updated, but her ebay auctions are live:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Foxy-tails

Further to that, I have picked up some great stuff from Cookshill:

http://www.cookshill-flytying.co.uk/hair.htm

Try dropping Steve an email and ask him for some silver fox - I got some from him at the game fair last weekend, and it was really nice stuff, some 4+ inches in length, with the properties of arctic fox tail.

TT.

[Ugie Fisher]

cheers steff, i will take a look and get some.

[Aled]

Bill Pennigton who wrote about Sea Trout fishing the angling press back in the 80's used marabou in his sea trout flies, i liked his patterns gave them a whirl but they did not work for me however, there is a exception to every rule! On a moonlight night i have caught sewin using a LS size 8 Appetiser which has a combination of a white marabou and natural squirrel tail in its wing. Its not caught me a lot of fish, and never a big one but it has saved a blank or two.
Tight Lines
Aled

[Ugie Fisher]

Aled, thanks for that. I have caught sewin on rainbow lures aswel a cats whiskes if i remember. I took the wrong box up the river.oops. My father was over in Denmark recently and the guys he spoke to about sewin flies don't use hair atol they all use marabou and grizzly marabou for their patterns. But if you do use marabou remember to wet it before you fish with it as it will break if a fish snatches if it is dry.

regards UF

[allypally]

Foxy furs do a good selection of various fox materials generously packaged,very good prices
If you do any salmon fishing google site jan eric Granbo,Norweigan site,apparently where its hard to get say templedog hair for fur say 4" plus the guys in Scandinavia are now looking at synthetic winging materials which they reckon are just as good,
I just got a delivery of h2o slinky fibre £2.25 per pack uk saltwater flies, various colours and the guys who fly fish the salt say its a good bucktail substitute
will let you know how it ties when i try,will have to go now its Scotland wifes tutting Hogmanay and all that,rather be doing something with fishing but have to be a good boy
Happy New year to all when it comes

[Ugie Fisher]

Craft Furs

{; Has anyone tied or seen this material before? I think it is like arctic fox but not sure. {;

[Teifi-Terrorist]

{; Has anyone tied or seen this material before? I think it is like arctic fox but not sure. {;

Hi UF,

I would say that it would be identical to Polar-Fibre:

http://www.britnett-carver.co.uk/flyonly/prods/51.html

I've tried the stuff on a few occasions, but to be honest I'm not convinced, and never really got on with the stuff. It would be advertised as a substitute for furs such as arctic fox, but in my opinion makes a very poor substitute.

TT.

[Ugie Fisher]

thanks TT, much appriciated.