The Complete Fisher Forum

[drsixty7]

Just dipping my toes into the fly tying waters has also coincided with enjoying a week on a farm with not only acres of open pastures but stables too. I made it my mission to find as many natural materials as I possibly could, here's what I came home with.... The downy under feathers of an unfortunate pigeon, unidentified white feathers, guinea fowl feathers, roe deer fur and horse hair in various colours. Any ideas what I can make with this lot?

[lakefisher]

Geoff Bucknall's "Footballer Buzzer" springs to mind as a pattern tied up using horsehair
_________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

[tenet]

[lakefisher]

...... At least some of the "old grey cells" are still firing - occasionally ...... Tony
_________________
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

[Invicta]

It was used on some spider patterns and have seen it dyed and used on klink bodies but could see it being used on a fair few fly bodies.
_________________
"Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics, that it can never be fully learnt."

[NeilH]

Rubbish photo but these have a horse hair body

[Grey Hackle]

They are nice Neil.

As well as bodies horse hair can be utilised for wings and tails.

The longest horse hairs come from the tail as opposed to the mane There was an amusing article posted in another place recently on the merits of using horse hair from a stallion as against a mare. This came down to the fact the way the different sexes urinated. It was believed that the male horse had better tail hair because it was less effected by peeing!


_________________
To be able to wing correctly a small dry fly is the height of attainment in trout fly dressing and is the most difficult part of the art... Roger Woolley

[BlankDay]

You could always don the plus fours, tweed jacket and top hat, make some horsehair lines and tell us what they're like.
_________________
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

[drsixty7]

[flytier07]

I love using horse hair and even have made some robust extended bodies with it as it,s not as coarse as deer or elk hair-possibly the reason why it was used and still is for fly lines and is still used as the tenkara japanese traditional fly lines. Use it for bodies, ribbing, tails, hair wings and whatever other use you may find for it.