Substitute for hares mask?

[FlySmyth]

Can someone recommend a substitute for hares mask. I am allergic to it. Everytime I tie grhe I have an allergic reaction. I just use it for the tails on hares ears so there must be a sub somewhere. My skills do NOT lie in the creative side of fly tying. I am not much of an experimenter.

Thanks in advance.


FlySmyth.

[Jason]

Try squirrel tail.

[Don]

If your looking for a dubbing try Possum dubbing. There are different companies that make it. I know Wapsi is one company that makes a dubbing called "awsome possum", you'll love it! I don't even tie with hares masks anymore.

[Caddfly]

Ahhh...a fellow rabbit-allergic person. But I don't know...relating myself to Flysmyth isn't all that grand. Ha ha. Anyways, if you are just using it for the tails, I just use some brown hen hackle. I get the same success with both. I tie a thread button behind and then fan the tail.

CADDFLY

[Mike A]

I read in one of Dave Hughes' books that he has the same problem. He uses prepared dubbing (like from Hareline) to make the bodies, then just uses a bunch of hairs from the packaged dubbing for the tail as well. It's not as even and nice, but it works.

I use feather barbs for tails on my GRHEs myself.

[Flyin Ties]

I've used hairs clipped from my dog. If you can find the right color.
He was a yellow/ brown lab. Especially if it's for tail fibers.

[Wayne T Holdawa]

Red Fox Squirrel. It is better. Dave Whitlock uses it in his Red Fox Squirrel (Gold Rib) Nymph. I have used it for G R tales for years. If you cant find any send me a E and I will send you some.
Wayne

[RAW]

I'm thinking some carpet fibers in the right color may work!

My brother and I used to get the "free" carpet samples from carpet stores and tie all kinds of dubbed flies with them. Good stuff!