Fish Hair

[vanislealoha]

Wanted to try the Polar Shrimp as well as a few other flies that required white calf tail only I could not find any in the stores and I did not want to buy Polar Bear so I tried Fish Hair.

Thought it was easy to work with and thought it would behave nicely in the water as it is flexible but has memory so I figured that the water currents will give it some good action.

Tested it under the tap and in some still water and I am now unsure it will work well. Anyone use this material before and what were the results?

Heres a pick of one of the flies

[phearless]

I have used Fish Hair on saltwater flies.
It seems to be better in longer lengths.
From my personal experience, any of the synthetics that you have to cut to length, the longer the better.
It just doesn't seem to lend itself to short flies.
IMO it needs to be trimmed on an angle to partly make up for the square ends.
Try Arctic Fox, calftail, yak hair, icelandic hair, polar bear, bucktail or anything else that works for you.
Remember, no rules!

[geoffvl]

I noticed its harder to find calf tail too. Are they cutting down on making it wherever they make it?

[phearless]

Hmmmmm,
where they make it is on the back end of a calf

There is not a lot of veal on the market anymore.
Combine that with all the mad cow crap that went on and you get the idea.
I love baby beef liver, and haven't found it for years.

[geoffvl]

Side not on the baby beef liver. Have you ever tried getting it straight from the butcher's? Many have retail sections where you could probably get whatever you want.

[phearless]

Good plan!