FLYMPH FORUM

When pritt says the most pale buff colored fur from a possum does he mean domestic or Australian? I assume either one would work just fine as I believe domestic is really under rated. Also what is a pale blue grizzled hackle? Is that just standard grizzly or more like a barred blue dun? Thanks fellas!

An interesting question. They wouldn't be domestic, since there are no opossums in Britain.

Australian possums aren't actually opossums -- but they're always called possums rather than opossums. Just guessing that if Pritt had meant the Virginia opossum, he would have said so. Or maybe he didn't know or care about the difference.

See the edge of the natural brown possum.

https://wearnewzealand.com/possum-nz

Redietz he does say "opossum" but wait....are you saying possums and opossum are 2 different animals? I mean obviously there are multiple kinds or breeds or whatever but I didn't realize there was a distinction. I'm just from the south so I say possum because I don't speak proper English haha

Terrestrial12 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 25, 2022 8:32 pm Redietz he does say "opossum" but wait....are you saying possums and opossum are 2 different animals? I mean obviously there are multiple kinds or breeds or whatever but I didn't realize there was a distinction. I'm just from the south so I say possum because I don't speak proper English haha

The Australian possum (that i can find is always called just possum) and true (o)possums (all native to the Americas) are different, not closely related animals. Obviously true opossums are often called possums as well.

Here's what you get when you enter the two terms into wikipedia:

Possums

Opossums

Pritt may not have made the distinction.

That fly is in “Brook and River Trouting” by Edmonds and Lee. They obviously got the spelling wrong because American opossum is never mentioned in British fly tying literature but Australian possum frequently is.

https://books.google.com/books?id=mv01D ... wV6BAgGEAc

I was thinking that the English may have had better access to Australian possum than American. It's possible that the spelling distinction is a recent thing, maybe due to advances in classification of marsupials.

The use of American opossum as a fly tying material is a recent thing as far as I can tell. Some tyers have found it useful as a seal fur substitute. Some thought on the word opossum here:

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/opossum-vs-possum/

wsbailey wrote: ↑Tue Jul 26, 2022 12:34 pm The use of American opossum as a fly tying material is a recent thing as far as I can tell. Some tyers have found it useful as a seal fur substitute. Some thought on the word opossum here:

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/opossum-vs-possum/

Good find. That's a great write up.

Resurrecting an old thread, I found the difference between possum and opossum: