Is dogs hair good for tying?

[Yotrout]

I have a purebread siberian husky and we are constantly brushing him. A few days ago i noticed a clump of his hair that resembled the tail end of a fly. So i tied a wooley bugger with it and it turned out pretty nice. Just wondering if anyone else used dogs hair or any other stuff to tie with.

 

[jdaddy]

I was taking a tying class last year and a guy showed up with a bag full of blond hair. Wanted to know if he could tie a fly with his secretaries hair? We thought the better question was if his wife knew that he was banging the secretary?

 

[FrequentTyer]

I used to tie gold ribbed beagle butt nymphs. The little guy passed last year and now I'm restricted to hair from my lab mix which just doesn't dub well. My wife hasn't yet bought into the savings that could be realized by getting another beagle rather than buying hare's mask...

 

[odizz17]

Hahaha I've thought about using my choc labs hair, but I agree it doesn't dub well at all. Might work out for tails/legs though

 

[Yotrout]

LOL @ Jdaddy

 

[sandfly]

Wife didn't care she was bangin the gardener..and milk man, and paper boy

 

[flytyingfred]

a few years ago when I first started tying my wife was cutting my hair and I bagged some and took it over to the shop. I chopped it with scissors and mixed it with some rabbit fur. I tied a bunch of nymphs with it and caught my first fish in Yellowstone with it. I call it Freds hair and ears nymph. I tied one for the first swap I was in on here. It wouldnt work well by itself but mixed with the rabbit it makes the nymphs spikier. Mixed with a coffee grinder it works well.

 

[sandfly]

Yeah that's why all the fish in Yellowstone went belly up that year..drought my @$$..

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Yotrout,

I had a yellow lab that would get these little tufts of hair that would sort of just pop out from time to time.

Eventually I decided to harvest a few tufts and I tied some Royal Trudes using the hair for the wing instead of calf tail. The hair made perfect downwings and it compressed beautifully making a nice compact and tight fly. When tested in a glass of water they floated for days.

Sadly, my lab passed away and I could never bring myself to use any of those flies. Maybe this year I'll get up the nerve tie one on, catch a fish, pour some of Sid's ashes into the water and then put them away for good?

I can't get over how I still miss I miss her?

RIP Sidney

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[Yotrout]

Tim, sorry to hear about Sidney. My golden retreiver died two years ago and I still think about him at least once a day especially when I go fishing. He was a trained waterfowl retriever but his original owner died just after his first birthday. I love my husky but he's a real #OOPS# in comparison.

I think you should use some of those flies. Those dogs will always live on through our memories of them. You have the opportunity to create new memories with your passed friend. That's an almost impossible feat by any means. Best of luck.

I almost forgot to ask, did you ever get another dog? I had to wait quite sometime before I could even consider it but It helped tremedously.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Yotrout,

It's funny how dogs get inside you isn't it? You lose one and you tell yourself you don't want to go through that again and the next thing you know you are setting yourself up to repeat the process.

My Sidney was still alive and seemed to be fine during the early winter of 2004-2005. Every day when I came home from work the goofy long legged dog next door came and leaned over the fence whining until I came to pet her. The neighbor could be in his yard with her and his other dog and the goofy one would run away from them to see me.

I had Sidney put down on January 15, 2005. She had been acting kind of funny for a week or two and that Saturday morning she was unresponsive. I literally thought she was going to die right before my eyes so I rushed her to the vet's to find out she was bleeding internally and riddled with cancer. To say I was devastated would be putting it mildy.

I'm reluctant to say this, but as luck would have it, my neighbor's two dogs got in a big fight one day when he wasn't home and his wife said one of them had to go.

He advertised the goofy one as "free dog to good" home and even went as far as driving to deliver her to to someone but that person never answered the door when he got there with the dog.

Finally at the end of January he brought the subject up with me and asked me if I might be interested? I told him thank you but I can't accept your dog. He said, "Why not, she's more attached to you than she is to me or my family?" So I took her home for the night and she never left my house.

I still miss Sidney but I got one hell of a dog in my goofy girl Avalon.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[Yotrout]

Shes beautiful.

These are before and afters of our husky.

 

[njk3395]

I tie flies with my cat's fur all the time, dubs like a champ.

 

[Zeddediah]

I've been a lurker hear for some time, but this topic prompted me...
I have two Red Merle Australian Shepherds whose fur/hair has been the source for burnt orange, white, and brown dubbing that lasts forever on a fly, stays nice and puffy. The brown hairs on Bonnie's hocks make for great crawdads...I have caught numerous bass with them. The tufts on the ears are at least as soft as maribou and their white. The look on their face when I call them to me with scissors in my hand for a bit of hair is hilarious. I also have a weimaraner whose hair is worthless for fly tying. I love him anyway.

 

[Leteras]

I had a dog named Domino when I was younger that was part britney spaniel and black lab. He looked like a britney spaniel and was black and white. When I brushed his ears I collected the soft fur and it was the best black dubbing that I have ever used. I have a bag of it still but haven't used any of it since he died of old age.

 

[vcregular]

Nice dogs! Best hares ear imitation hair, is chesapeake bay retriever hair. Can't beat it for a march brown wet fly imitation.

 

[wetfly1]

[color=0033FF]My neighbor has a black lab from which I collected hair when he was brushing him out last fall. I put the hair in a mason jar with water and a drop of shampoo... shook it up, rinse and dry out. Lab hair doesn't dub well, but works great in a dubbing loop. I made some really nice and hairy black streamers wit it.
mike[/color]

 

[RLeep2]

I have a male, long hair domestic cat that is the exact dirty yellow/tan of an E. Invaria dun. He sheds about a grocery bag of hair a month and when he moves through the house, he is sort of surrounded by this penumbra/halo of hair he is leaving in his wake. He is willing to part with quart-size Ziploc bags of this hair for $5.99/each or an equivalent amount of canned tuna. Shipping is free. Inquire about multiple bag discounts.

Act now. After he goes to the groomer in late May for his annual lion cut, prices will almost certainly go up significantly. Make checks payable to "Sam". Sorry, due to low overhead, no credit cards or other Pay Pal-type electronic payment methods can be accepted....

As a postscript, there is also a limited supply of Adams gray hair available from our domestic short hair Oscar. Standard 2"X 2" bags -$159.00. Every time I comb him to get hair, he bites me. So, we need to charge more. Also make these checks out to Sam. He has the better head for business and will see Oscar gets his cut. Additionally, Sam is trying to save to go and study accounting at the University of Alaska-Southeast in Juneau. He claims he picked UA-SE because of the excellent reputation it has in the field, but my wife and I think it has more to do with getting closer to the big salmon runs..

 

[rhbuilds]

i use the white hair from my dogs tail.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

I had a Choc Lab that was a great hunting dog that died several years ago. I saved a quart bag of his fur from the brush, and it is still a staple for my sinking paterns. I never tie Pheasant Tails with anything else, as the dog hair is ten times more durable. My favorite bead head pattern uses his fur, and I brush it out when I'm done, giving a very "buggy" appearance. It is hands down my favorite pattern, and has accounted for hundreds of trout, in a variety of waters. Maybe not as user friendly for dubbing tiny dry flies, but it would float well. To those that say it doesn't dub well; keep on thinking that way! As an added bonus, I often think of pleasant days afield with my dog, while I'm fishing