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3. Mink hair!

I just acquired some Mink, one tail and a fair-sized strip of pelt with medium-brown fur. Are there any patterns that call for Mink dubbing? The stuff was free from a good non-fishing friend and I'd like to incorporate it into some flies, somehow.

The Roguerat

I Peter 5:7 'Cast your cares upon Him...' the flyfishers'verse

You can use the longer hair for down wing patterns like caddis and stone fly wings. Cut out an appropriate sized clump for the hook size and with your thumb and index finger of your other hand gently pull out the short, fuzzy, under fur. Then if you want you can take the remaining longer and stiffer fibers and put them into a hair stackeer to get the ends all nice and even.

Put "the mink thing" in your search bar and go... you'll find a pattern that was first mentioned back in the 70's... a teriffic "nymph"....

Some use it for dark shucks.

ROGUE,
Wbranch hit the nail on the head. Len Wright's Fluttering Caddis was originally tied using hackle fiber wings, but Gary LaFontaine suggested using mink instead. It works very well. Check this out in Gary's CADDISFLIES or Wright's FISHING THE DRY FLY AS A LIVING INSECT.

Mark

Also good to use a little under the hair wing of an Elkhair or similar design to simulate the translucent hind wings. I think we're talking about tail hair though and Roguerat is talking body fur.

And I should have specified guard hairs for shucks. In particular one Iso pattern I've seen calls for it.

I love the "mink thing" fly that I found in a late 70's issue of Fly Fisherman. It's a nymph that I tie in size 10 through 18 on wet fly or scud hooks. Just make a dubbing loop, stuff a sparse noodle of mink dubbing in the loop, and wrap a tapered fly, slim toward the bend, thicker at the front. I prefer GSP thread, white or gray. That's it; no rib, no head, nothing but thread and mink. Do not remove guard hairs; it should be sparse and messy. Make dubbing by trimming mink off the hide, throw it in a coffee grinder, and give it a quick zap, or use your own method of blending fur. Do not use dyed fur; it lacks translucence.