Tying Hair Wings Part One Pattern & Tying Instructions

One of the keys to producing hair wings on flies like the Ausable or Royal Wulff, is proper material preparation. Here I’m going to use white calf body hair. You generally need more than you think, because much of what you see on the hide is actually underfur, so snip a fairly large clump free. Gently pull the majority of the underfur out from the butt ends of the hair. Get hold of the clump in the fingertips of your right hand. Although not absolutely necessary, I like to pre-stack the hair in a large hair stacker to get the tips roughly aligned and the clump consolidated. I’ll then use a smaller stacker for the final tip alignment. After a good stacking, tap the tool at an angle to concentrate the hair in the bottom of the tube. Then, remove the base of the stacker so you can get hold of the tips with the fingers of your right hand, which will, in turn, allow you to pass the hair to your left. Because the hair is held in your left hand it’s ready for tie-in as a wing, which can be seen in Part Two of this video.