# Elk v deer hair



## krc.humpy (Sep 17, 2007)

What flies/tying situations do you prefer elk over deer hair and the other way around?


----------



## wovenstonefly (Apr 9, 2008)

Elk for almost everything but spinning for me.


----------



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Elk for attractors of any kind.

Deer hair - coastal deer hair - for divided hair wings on small dries. It seems to just be better. Mule deer hair is useless and not in my kit.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

I don't use deer hair.....use elk or caribou although. Use to use calf hair for most wings but now use the synthetic stuff.

Can't seem to find time to tie anymore.


----------



## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

Yet you still have time to comment on the forums? And comment about fly tying?






I'm just givin ya a hard time Goob. :wink:


----------



## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Elk Hock Hair or Coastal Deer for wings on Comparaduns and Sparkle Duns
Elk for wings/tails on stones/hoppers
Deer hair for bulletheads and spinning


----------



## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Quality no matter elk or deer.


----------



## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Packfish said:


> Quality no matter elk or deer.


That's a very good point.
I have a few patches of Elk and Deer that are of no use for tying.
Be sure to look at the hair before you buy it.
Some patches of hair have a natural bend to them. These patches are not usable for me.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

lehi said:


> Yet you still have time to comment on the forums? And comment about fly tying?
> 
> I'm just givin ya a hard time Goob. :wink:


Yer a funny guy lehi.

To tell ya the truth, the older I get the more I dislike fly tying. Funny, when I was younger I figured it would be the other way around. I am threatening to sell all my fly tying stuff, except my real polar bear hair, hummingbird feathers, and tanned deer mouse hides, for 5¢ on a dollar and taking the money and buying a new pickup......ah....I may keep my #32 hooks, if I find them.

The two biggest whippin's I got on the old UWN were over fly tying; one was the fact that I, and morons like me, used Mustad hooks, and the other was some eletist nonsense about which way the shiney side of a hackle faces. :wink:


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Doesn't anyone use caribou any more?

I think it flares much easier than deer. Floats higher too.


----------



## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

wyogoob said:


> Doesn't anyone use caribou any more?
> 
> I think it flares much easier than deer. Floats higher too.


Not sense everyone started to call them Raindeer.
Now it's not politically correct to use the stuff. -O|o-


----------



## catch22 (Feb 26, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> To tell ya the truth, the older I get the more I dislike fly tying.


I agree with your comment about tying flies. Now that I am past the mid-50 point :V|: I have to take off my bi-focals and put my eyes right on the materials. Can't see a -#&#*!- thing. Same goes for fishing dries. So I nymph a lot, which I can do with my eyes closed.

I know this doesn't answer the hair question.


----------



## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

wyogoob said:


> one was the fact that I, and morons like me, used Mustad hooks,


I must be a moron like you then.

You know, I've never had a fish ask what brand of hook I used on my flies. Or what brand of fly rod I was using for that matter. I'm one of the morons that has caught Henry's Fork rainbows on flies tied with mustad hooks, fished with at $19.99 Eagle Claw fly rod (came with a reel/line too!) I bought at K-Mart. Funny thing those Henry's Fork rainbows - for some reason they avoided the flies that guy who stepped right out of the Orvis catalog, was fishing. Huh. :wink:


----------



## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Im not even going to get into the mustad vs QUALITY hook debate again! 8)


----------



## krc.humpy (Sep 17, 2007)

Thanks for all the info. I must have bad luck with quality elk hair because I never seem to like the final product with the stuff I have but do pretty well with deer hair. Where is the best place to get some quality hair selection?


----------



## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Western Rivers, hands down


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

catch22 said:


> wyogoob said:
> 
> 
> > To tell ya the truth, the older I get the more I dislike fly tying.
> ...


Ah....hell, I forgot what the question was.


----------



## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> wyogoob said:
> 
> 
> > one was the fact that I, and morons like me, used Mustad hooks,
> ...


 at 1 time Mustad were brittle hooks- there was a quality problem there----- from what I have purchased lately they seem to have corrected it. Had nothing to do with a "name" - it was they broke in yoiur vise frequently.


----------



## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

Ive got some mustads, use them all the time.


----------



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Packfish said:


> ........................................................
> at 1 time Mustad were brittle hooks- there was a quality problem there----- from what I have purchased lately they seem to have corrected it. Had nothing to do with a "name" - it was they broke in yoiur vise frequently.


Yep, they did have brittle hooks.


----------

