Tim Barker at PlanetTrout recently tied a nice emerger pattern with white Snowshoe rabbit hair. I was impressed by the appearance and figured I would try to use the material. I have been on a CDC kick of late and Tim suggested the Snowshoe hair might be a better material compared to CDC. So, I tried it. Lordy me! I struggled with it on a size 18 hook. So, I would suggest experimenting with the material on a bigger hook and getting use to the hairs.
The hook was a Gamakatsu C15-BV, size 18, vertical eye. The tail/shuck was a single strand of copper/black Krystal flash. The abdomen body was black and olive 14/o Sheer thread wrapped around each other and then wound onto the hook. The wing post is a clump of hairs from a tan Snowshoe Rabbit foot. I tied it in and elevated it with thread wraps around the base of the post. A very small Grizzly hackle was tied in and wrapped around the base of the post ala parachute style.
I fumbled with the rabbit hairs and tying off the hackle. I really could not see very well. The lighting was great, but frankly I just cannot cleanly tie the smaller flies, unless it is a simple nymph or pupa pattern. But, I will continue to muddle through because the reality is you do need some smaller patterns and I will continue to experiment until I find the simpler, cleaner patterns to tie.
Gary,
Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson wrote a great article on tying with snow shoe hare in the Summer 2007 issue of Flyfishing and Tying Jourrnal, pgs. 52-57.Those guys also have some VERY useful tips on tying with this stuff in their book, Tying Emergers, pgs. 27-29…I’ll get it to you…
PS: CUT the hair straight across the top or angled slightly towards the bend, I gauge the lenght 1 1/2 the shank length…
PT/TB
Thank you Tim….I have that book somewhere….the Tying Emergers one..
This turned out very nice…. is the rabbit fur hard to work with? It seems it maybe slippery especially tying a small pattern as this.
That may be a good way to describe it. Slippery and moved around a bit in the pinch. Tim Barker says he prefers it to CDC for durability and flotation. I may experiment in combining the two and on a 14 and 16 hook…comes in assorted colors although the white would lend itself to visibiltiy with dries and emergers. Also, I may not be precise enough her, but the rabbit foot has hairs and an underfur of sorts. I could be wrong in my description but as I cut off a clump there appeared to me underfur to pull out from amongst the butt ends of the cut material.