wolf fur for fly tying?

[Geramy]

okay, I have never used wolf fur, or fox fur, or coyote, nor do I ever intend to, while I have a fundamental belief that all men have the right to (for the most part) do as they please as is withing their own morals, I personally cannot (within my own moral bounds) use these furs, but, for the record, what flies are tied with these furs? I have never seen an actual fly that is tied with them, but, I see the hides all over in fly shops, what gives? what am I missing, what flies are tied with these furs?

[Chadd044]

You see wolf and coyote hides in fly shops all over the place? Seriously? I'm sure I've seen them around, but they're definitely not common in the shops that I go to, so I don't know who's using coyote and wolf for what flies. I don't even know where I'd get it if I needed it right now.

However, I have seen plenty of fox fur and fox tail in shops and in fly patterns. It's a pretty common material. I'm no expert on fly tying recipes, but I know it's used for streamers and other wet flies. Fox tail hair is very long and wispy and would look good in the water, like maribou but probably more rugged. Arctic fox is white -- a number of traditional salmon flies call for it, so, that'd be another place where fox fur or tail would be used.

I think, in general, the variety of fly tying materials is on a downswing. As less-expensive synthetic materials become more available and more accepted by leading tyers, the need and market for very exotic animal materials will decline. If you read old fly fishing tomes like "The Complete Angler" (written in the 1400s), or even "Trout" (written in the 1930s), you will find recipes for a single fly with fluff and hair and quills from about twenty different animals -- skunk hair, polar bear fur, hawk feathers, squirrel fur, etc. etc. You'd have to be hunting and trapping all year to have the right materials to tie some of those flies. Way back in Ye Olden Dayes, I think it had a lot to do with coloration and texture. If you wanted jet black feathers, you had to get them from a raven -- permanent dying of feathers wasn't perfected. If you wanted white, water-resistant fur it had to come from the foot of a snowshoe rabbit -- Dacron wasn't invented. As time went by, those obscure and hard-to-find materials were passed down by tradition. Nowadays synthetics may actually work better than the natural fibers they replace, but some people want to keep the traditions going just on principle, and there is a certain appeal to tying (for example) a Hare's Ear Nymph with all natural materials and thinking that this fly pattern is so old we don't even know how old it is.

So, there may be some arcane fly patterns that call for wolf hair or coyote tail, but I'm sure other materials could be substituted with something less exotic and less controversial.

[bearbeast437]

These are all predators so it shouldn't bother you,they would eat your hide given a chance.Also I hate to break the bad news but people also use rabbit and squirrel which are small furry creatures,they are actually quite good with gravy.