Comparadun - Selecting Deer Hair - Part 2 Pattern & Tying Instructions

When selecting deer hair for tying comparaduns, there are a few things to look for. In most cases, the hair should be no greater than 1 1/2” in length, unless you’re tying truly large flies – say 6’s or 8’s. You also don’t want it much shorter than about 3/4” unless you’re tying really small flies – say 18 and below. In addition, you want the hair to have fairly even color banding going across. Here the banding is a little jaggedy but should come together once stacked. You’re also looking for very short, fine black tips on the hair.

This patch has rather nice banding and looks pretty good at first glance. Bending the hide, however, reveals a lot of unevenness in hair length which can be problematic. It also allows you to see that there are very long black tips on virtually every hair. In contrast, this patch of hair has good color bands, nice even hair length and extremely short fine black tips. A quick test indicates that it will indeed work very well for a comparadun wing.