Patterns using racoon tail

I bought some racoon tails a long time ago for cheap, thinking surely there
was a pattern that used racoon tail. I've not yet found any - can anyone
name some? I've used it a little as a substitute material, but everything
I've done with it so far has seemed...not quite right.

"Alan Edwards" wrote in message
...
I bought some racoon tails a long time ago for cheap, thinking surely there
was a pattern that used racoon tail. I've not yet found any - can anyone
name some? I've used it a little as a substitute material, but everything
I've done with it so far has seemed...not quite right.


From Jack Gartside

Tarpon Spey

Hook: M34006, Daiichi 2546 (or similar): sizes 2/0 - 2

Thread: 6/0 Danville's orange

Body: Mottled orange/black or plain tan chenille

Hackle: Pheasant rump feather palmered over body (tie in at tip and wind
forward so that you end up with some of the soft downy fiber up near eye)

Wing: Natural tannish raccoon hair (from tail or body) tied in so that tips
extend just a little beyond bend of hook Head: Orange

"Alan Edwards" wrote in message
...

I bought some racoon tails a long time ago for cheap, thinking surely
there
was a pattern that used racoon tail. I've not yet found any - can anyone
name some? I've used it a little as a substitute material, but everything
I've done with it so far has seemed...not quite right.

Several patterns in books of the 1960s called
for "monga ringtail", and these black and white striped
monkey tails were then sold by dealers. The colour contrast
in natural raccoon tails seems less, but they might be
good enough for such patterns.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don wrote:Several patterns in books of the 1960s called
for "monga ringtail", and these black and white striped
monkey tails were then sold by dealers. The colour contrast
in natural raccoon tails seems less, but they might be
good enough for such patterns.


I have used coyote and fox tail for tying clousers, don't know why racoon tail
wouldn't work for either clousers or blondes.

Big Dale

"Big Dale" wrote in message
...

I have used coyote and fox tail for tying clousers, don't know why racoon
tail
wouldn't work for either clousers or blondes.

He is now dead so I can say the big secret
of Raymond Arsenault's RAT series of salmon
flies (at Campbelltown, NB) was his use of
coyote for the wing rather than the gray fox or
gray squirrel suggested in most pattern books.
(The basis of this conclusion is that, after a very
pleasant hour-long chat in 1978, when I guessed the
RAT wing might be coyote he immediately threw me
out of his store.)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

I have used coyote and fox tail for tying clousers, don't know why racoon
tail wouldn't work for either clousers or blondes.


He is now dead so I can say the big secret
of Raymond Arsenault's RAT series of salmon
flies (at Campbelltown, NB) was his use of
coyote for the wing rather than the gray fox or
gray squirrel suggested in most pattern books.
(The basis of this conclusion is that, after a very
pleasant hour-long chat in 1978, when I guessed the
RAT wing might be coyote he immediately threw me
out of his store.)

Cool. Got some coyote too from an old parka. By the way, I've never
been thrown out of a fly fishing store. Then again, my standard
greeting at my favorite store is opening the door and throwing in my
wallet like a live grenade. Proprietor jumps on it to save me every time.

--
Frank Reid
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