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craft fur flies

After watching some tutorials on spinning craft fur I decided to take a shot at it. I had some old santa hats that had white craft fur as the trim, so out came the scissors. These are take markers well and are easy to trim to shape. I saw a youtube clip on the Dead head minnow and here's my effort on that pattern. Eager to see how these fish. Craft fur, markers and fabric glue, and some trial and error is all it takes.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dick tabbert on July 24, 2012 at 5:26pm

Man Rex if I was a fish I would bite these. I was thinking on making a few we have some big river system here loaded with Small Mouths. Maybe you can do a tutorial.

Permalink Reply by dick tabbert on July 24, 2012 at 5:26pm

What a great way to really break in the fly rods.

Permalink Reply by Lee on July 24, 2012 at 5:50pm

Great looking Flys!

Permalink Reply by Allen Morgan on July 24, 2012 at 6:24pm

I almost picked up some craft fur the other day. I finally got a chance to put those streamers I tied into the river. I had a really hard time getting them to sink more 6" down. Never did get a bite. Colors used were white w/ ostrich herl, and white/olive.

I realized a few things. One of those streamers had deer hair for the body, which floats. I did go and get some bigger lead wire (.030), and some blue puglisi fibers. I would have bought craft fur, but they didn't have any in light blue.

I tied up a couple streamers by wrapping the entire hook shank with the .030 lead wire, used white calf's tail hair, some of the blue puglisi, ostrich herl over that, 5 - 6 strands of flashabou, and a small tuft of red marabou on the underside, below the head.

Those actually sink rather well. Now, I just need to a fluoro furled leader, and fluoro tippet material to let it sink even more. I might even have to get a sink-tip fly line, but I'd rather not, as this river isn't that deep, 4' max at the flow rate I like to fish.

Permalink Reply by jim cosgrove on July 24, 2012 at 6:41pm

ever try a zonker?easy to tie,you can get lead tape at a golf club supply.

Permalink Reply by jim cosgrove on July 24, 2012 at 6:38pm

those are awsome,see you still use feathers for the tails to make em swim

Permalink Reply by Greg McWilliams on July 24, 2012 at 7:35pm

Rex, Those are some GREAT LOOKING FLIES!!!! Another good thing about craft fur, and artifical fur is they don't absorb water like rabbit , squirrel etc.. !!! Therefor they keep their shape better!!!!!

GOOD JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Permalink Reply by Jim Gronaw on July 24, 2012 at 7:44pm

Wow! Those certainly are fabulous looking! Great job!

I tie a lot of my jigs with craft fur, favoring it over other synthetics and most natural materials. Again, beautiful work!

Permalink Reply by Bill Purmort on December 27, 2012 at 4:04pm

Rex,

I'm curious, did you use a dubbing loop to spin the fur onto the thread? I think that is a fantastic way to put a lot of material onto the shank.

One neat trick when using a dubbing loop is to get your fur loaded into the loop and right before you spin it...take your scissors and cut the hair into a xmas tree or triangle shape...the wide shape at the bottom of the loop and the point at the top. as you spin it the material obviously is thicker and heavier at what will be your head of the fly as you wind it towards the eye. Naturally your fly is tapered at the back and thick at the head....you can adjust your cut to match where you want the dubbing....

Great looking flies, you will have no problem enticing fish to your hand...you have alread caught us with you design.

Bill

Permalink Reply by Rex Robinson on December 28, 2012 at 4:42pm

Bill, I did load a dubbing loop with the craft fur to make the body. Great tip on trimming before wrapping because I constantly have to fight it to keep from wrapping over it as I move forward. Thanks for the tip and compliment.

Permalink Reply by Rick King on December 27, 2012 at 4:37pm

They look outstanding Rex....... what are you going to fish for with them??

Permalink Reply by Rex Robinson on December 28, 2012 at 4:55pm

Rick, I'm going to give Mr. Bass an opportunity to except my offer. Several years back when my tying skill were primitive I had good luck with a minnow pattern, that now I would deny I tied. It always good to keep some of your first attempts at a pattern to look back years later and see improvement in skills. This is another one of those patterns that looks like it would be real difficult but is fairly easy. I've enjoyed seeing and like several of your flies you posted lately. Keep the fur flying!!