Flymph Challenge - Rabbits Foot Dubbing

[tjd]

I did notice a couple of comments about harvesting regular (cottontail) rabbit's feet and wonder if this material has the same translucence and hydrophobic properties as the snowshoe hare stuff. Anybody know for sure?

Bill, I don't know for sure, but Art Lee wrote about it in an article in Fly Fisherman, titled "The Usual, With a Twist", and later re-printed in his book "Lore of Trout Fishing" that snowshoe hare and cottontail did not share the same properties. Actually he wrote that flies winged with cottontail sank like stones, which I find untrue. Cottontail makes a great Usual, especially for BWOs and Hendricksons-or any fly requiring a medium to dark dun wing. I have had no problems with floatability. I generally dry the fly with Amadou and treat the wing with Gink.

That's what I know. I've been tying Usuals with cottontail foot hair since I was a kid. Snowshoe hares are scarce where I live, and I've never seen one locally. I'm certain that many of the feet sold as snowshoe hare are not-but are from the large domestic rabbits raised for meat.

Best,

Tim

[Mataura mayfly]

I can possibly dig out feet from both the European Hare (appears in the photos of my offerings a page or two back) and the common European Brown Rabbit, take photos of both and offer them up. Will do some research and see if they are same/similar to your Jack Rabbit & Cottontail.

[kacbo]

Rabbit's foot hair are somewhat shorter and finer compared to hare's foot hair. And hare's foot is somewhat larger than rabbit's. Basically, it is not dramatically different and both could be used for same purpose. And, there are no two animals identical.

I'm not sure, but seems (to me) that snowshoe refers to a season when animal has been taken. Winter fur is rich with underfur, usually. Same problem as with deer/elk hair, regard season (not with properties). Could be of some significance...

[tie2fish]

Thanks, folks, for the input on cottontail rabbits vs snowshoe hares. Based on what I've been able to find, the North American snowshoe hare primarily lives in areas where there is snow on the ground for long periods of time and whose fur coat color changes to white in the winter to afford camouflage protection from owls and lynx and the like. It also has larger feet to help it navigate on the snow, and the fur on them supposedly has strong hydrophobic properties to help stave off loss of body heat.

Anyhow, here is a refined version of the Hendrickson Flymph I posted earlier, with less stridently marked tail whisks, a silver braided tinsel rib (Hendrickson segmentation is very obvious) and a medium dun hen hackle that more closely matches the color of Hendrickson wings.

[swellcat]

[Wonder if the jackrabbit would be better regarded if it had been called the "American hare" (which is what it is).]

[Smuggler]

The Usual Flymph. Probably would be good for a grannom emergence. Sorry for the sloppy head! Great topic by the way, lots for really neat variations.


Hook : Varivas 2000v 16
Silk : Langley "Goblin Green"
Tail/body/collar: Dun dyed snowshoe rabbit foot.

[Roadkill]

Great fly Smuggler and the closest thing to a Usual on these posts. I think Fran would have tied it with hot orange thread for his later variations.

[Smuggler]

Great fly Smuggler and the closest thing to a Usual on these posts. I think Fran would have tied it with hot orange thread for his later variations.

I was going to use hot orange but, the green looked pretty enticing. You're right though, Fran did like orange on his Usual.

[letumgo]

Eric - I'd call that one a "sweeper". As in, it's likely to sweep in all the fish. Fantastically buggy design!

What a great series of post, by everyone. Lots of fishing mojo!

[tie2fish]

Excellent application of the snowshoe, Eric. Simple but extremely "buggy", and by varying thread color and size, you can probably cover a wide range of insects. Brilliant!