riverman wrote:
Whoda thunk a question about such an easy fly...

I was tying some up last night, size 12-18, and I could not get the
bodies on the smaller ones to be compact enough. The hare fur was all
spikey and made them rather bulbous rather than that 'nymph' shape
that they should be. How do you get hare's ear to behave? If I tried
cutting the fur down to tiny little pieces, it wouldn't dub so well
(even with wax), but if I left it long, the rogue hairs made the fly
look like a food pellet instead of a nymph. I eventually just used
80% synthetic dubbing with some pieces of hare's ear, and wrapped the
heck out of it.

My guess (and from personal experience) is you're cutting the hair too
long. I was cutting the hair at the very base and causing the bulbous
effect you mentioned.

And exactly where on the mask should I be harvesting fur for these? I
guess I'm not sure what the different parts of the mask are called.
Even the ear has at least 4 different qualities of fur (inside, on
the rim, the tip and the base).

I was taught to use the soft shorter stuff right at the base of the ear.
For a "spikier" look, I use the coarser hair, especially at the thorax.
--
TL,
Tim
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http://css.sbcma.com/timj