Willi wrote:


Hooked wrote:

Last night I tried tying up some size 16 EHC's. Being that I was using a
size 16 hook, I opted for 8/0 Uni-Thread. I couldn't put a whole lot of
pressure on the thread to secure the elk hair without breaking the
thread.
What size thread would be recommended to tie these?


Trying to comb out the underfur from the elk hair was a pain in the
uknowhat. Any suggestions?


You got some good advice from other posters. One thing no one brought up
is that all Elk hair is not created equal! Where the fur was taken from
the animal, the time of year the Elk was killed, and how it was cared
for all
contribute to the condition and type of hair. Texture, length, quality
color etc. are going to differ. Sometimes patches have alot of underfur
and I've gotten some that were sticky. This makes it hard to remove the
guard hairs. Washing will get rid of the stickiness. Usually I just use
my fingers to pull out the underfur, but on the tougher ones I use a dog
flea comb. It has very fine rounded teeth that work very well.

I've given up on ordering Elk hair unseen. I never end up getting what I
want. The texture or color is often wrong and I often get pieces with
lots of broken off tips. I'm sure the fish don't mind but I don't like
the way they look.

Too true...

The best elk hair for smaller flies would either be hock hair or
yearling elk hair. And the problem you mentioned with the thread
breaking could be due to the hair beings too stiff (as Willi mentioned)
or the thread having been exposed to the sun and having gotten damaged.
If I'm buying thread in a shop, I usually look to see where they store
it, and if it's near a window or anywhere it gets struck by direct
sunlight, I unroll a foot or so and wrap it a round a key and see how
easy it breaks.

I personally don't care much for Uni thread (I know, heresy) because
it's a "round thread"... a core of thread wrapped by more fibers. I
prefer a thread that can be unwound and flattened, like Danville or
Gudebrod. The Gudebrod 10/0 and 8/0 are great threads for smaller
flies, but their 6/0 is equivalent in diameter and strength to Uni 6/0.

Also, another suggestion for winging material on these smaller EHCs is
to try turkey flats. Once the fibers get separated, they look a lot
like hair.

Larry