It is currently 28 Mar 2024, 07:16


1, 2  Next New Topic Add Reply
Author Message
cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 12:12 • #1 
Guide
Joined: 06/15/20
Posts: 260
Location: Toledo, Ohio, USA.
My family and I take an annual trip up to Frankfort, MI. It's not a fishing trip, but I usually take my rod and steal away a time or two to go fish the Platte. I fish the well-known blue ribbon sections because it is close by. I've always only caught little trout, and I understand they are steelhead smolt, though I could be wrong. I did catch one brown trout this year, but it was also in the 6-8" range. Perhaps ohers have caught bigger trout in that river, but I never have. Either way, I still love it and it's a blast. It was still a good way to break in my Red Truck 7'6" 4wt that I recently built. Bonus this year is that I caught a fish with an Adams fly I tied using fur from my cat.






Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 12:17 • #2 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 03/30/09
Posts: 1525
Location: Hamilton,Ontario,Canada
Ive used underfur from my cats from brushing them.It makes awsome dubbing for nymphs.I dont have a cat now and seem to have lost the dubbing.Great material though. :)


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 13:36 • #3 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 08/25/08
Posts: 1526
Location: Delton, MI
Every time I hear someone talk about their newly discovered innovation to use the fur from their cat or dog to make great trout flies, I wonder if those poor animals end up being shaven like a sheep or worse, chunks taken out of their fur all over their body. :eek


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 13:58 • #4 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/11/06
Posts: 2516
Location: Nature Coast Florida
Talked to our cats about it and they said no thanks.



Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 14:26 • #5 
Guide
Joined: 09/08/17
Posts: 117
Location: Fort Collins, CO
Magnificent looking cats!


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 14:47 • #6 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Molt feathers from Amazon parrots can provide great greens, yellows, blues, and reds


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 16:27 • #7 
Guide
Joined: 06/15/20
Posts: 260
Location: Toledo, Ohio, USA.
Ha. Those are perfect reactions by your cats, grassnglass.

And don't worry, crustybugger. No shaving happening here. Just a fun gimmick to try.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 16:44 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 07/12/22
Posts: 207
I have a 22+ black Norwegian Forest cat named Baby. He gets mattes in the summertime when it is really humid. The first fly I ever tied was with a clump that I had to cut out with scissors.
I tied a huge Wooly Bugger my friend named the Baby Bugger. Caught a large mouth bass on the first cast. Fish probably thought it was a mouse.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 18:07 • #9 
Sport
Joined: 03/02/18
Posts: 38
Location: US-IL
We have two all black cats but their underfur is a dark, almost Adams grey, and yes, it's plentiful after a mere combing and it has caught fish.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 16 Aug 2022, 20:47 • #10 
Sport
Joined: 10/27/21
Posts: 88
Location: Georgia
I've often looked at my Norwegian Forrest and seen opportunities.... glad I'm not the only one.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 17 Aug 2022, 12:45 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/11/06
Posts: 2516
Location: Nature Coast Florida
This can start out innocently, but can go so bad.



Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 17 Aug 2022, 12:56 • #12 
Guide
Joined: 05/13/20
Posts: 250
Location: Lake Junaluska, NC
Great topic! Don't leave out the mutts. Our Australian shepherd needs seasonal brushing. I sometimes use the underfur pulled from the brush for dubbing.
P.S. No Aussies were harmed in the collection of dubbing material.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 22 Aug 2022, 17:46 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
very nice.. that Diesel reel is handsome too.

my cat says,



Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 23 Aug 2022, 11:35 • #14 
Guide
Joined: 01/25/20
Posts: 120
Location: US-VA
I just started tying this year and thought about making some fly's with our cat's hair just for kicks and giggles....now that I know I am not nuts I will give it a try.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 23 Aug 2022, 11:42 • #15 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
My buddy Ewell caught this rainbow on a cat-fur-dubbing nymph.

Image


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 25 Aug 2022, 08:19 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 10/18/12
Posts: 1712
Location: Bozeman, MT
GRASSNGLASS wrote:
This can start out innocently, but can go so bad.




Ha!!! Thanx for the laugh!


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 23 Apr 2023, 19:06 • #17 
Sport
Joined: 05/17/12
Posts: 34
Location: US-FL
Many years ago I had Russian Blue cat who on occasion let me brush her. It is some of the best grey nymph material I have ever used. I have been sorting dubbing the last couple of weeks and found two small bags of her fur. Will use it for some gray scuds for the Ozarks this fall.

Gregg


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 23 Apr 2023, 19:49 • #18 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 05/19/14
Posts: 3924
Location: USA - Illinois
Gregg, nice to see you posting on this board !


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 23 Apr 2023, 20:57 • #19 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
I have some pieces of bobcat pelt that look like fly material. The porch cats' fur looks too soft and dull to interest me.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 25 Apr 2023, 08:57 • #20 
Guide
Joined: 02/06/16
Posts: 328
Location: US
If you have a white persian and need orange dubbing do you dye the cat?


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 02 May 2023, 17:17 • #21 
Sport
Joined: 05/17/12
Posts: 34
Location: US-FL
Of course you can die the cat - but who is going to hold it down while you do it.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 02 May 2023, 22:10 • #22 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
in a burlap bag and dye the bag.


Last edited by Trev on 03 May 2023, 08:46, edited 2 times in total.

Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 03 May 2023, 07:05 • #23 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Clearly, kitty torture doesn't pluck a tender spot on Steve or Tom - always seems to spin dog lovers and cat lovers.

Speaking of plucking cats, David Train's original cat's whisker fly was named for plucking whiskers from his shy cat to make the wing stand.
(I get this done with krystal flash, which adds to the fly)

Image


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 03 May 2023, 09:11 • #24 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 11/06/17
Posts: 2498
Location: South of Joplin
My burlap post was done in humor, but probably in poor taste, it's been edited.
So many feral house cats and they cost so much in wildlife damage and have caused so many species of birds to be come extinct that it's hard for me to love or even like them. An average house cat can kill an adult chicken or cottontail rabbit and I've seen them snatch pigeons and doves out of the air as the bird starts to fly. Fascinating to watch a cat leap 4' off the ground and take bird in flight, until, one thinks about the numbers. If any tenderhearted person were to examine what cats really do and have done it should make them anti-cat.
"In the United States alone, outdoor cats kill approximately 2.4 billion birds every year."
" We estimate that free-ranging domestic cats kill 1.3–4.0 billion birds and 6.3–22.3 billion mammals annually."
" in the United Kingdom, where Britain’s five million house cats may take an annual toll of some 70 million animals and birds (Churcher and Lawton 1987)."

50 years ago when we lived in the city on the 2nd floor, my bride liked to throw bread and scraps out of the pantry window for the back yard pigeons to eat, I had a jon boat kept there and a city cat would hide under the boat until the yard was full of pigeons then stalk and take one. I've seen him take three in one after noon and wondered how he could eat so much. The feeding and killing of pigeons went on for a couple of years and she somehow never saw a single bird killed. Back then I was unaware of the extent of wildlife damage caused by such cats and the pigeons are an invasive species that in my youth were blame for the spread of livestock disease from farm to farm, so, it didn't bother me.
38 years ago when we moved to the country, I had a large flock of chickens with coop and small run surrounded 8' high with poultry wire that I supposed kept 'coons and 'possums out, yet was finding dead hens partially eaten on a regular basis, it turned out that this place had a large feral cat population that were climbing and entering a small opening that I had overlooked, 17 cats later the dead hens stopped. More recently I've seen Her porch cats kill cottontails and mourning doves, yet we still have mice.


Top
  
Quote
Re: cat fur flies
Post 03 May 2023, 10:24 • #25 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19077
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Trev, the humor was received - it just isn't always by everyone.

My neighbor used to feed feral cats (think 40) until enough neighbors complained.
My Akita must have dispatched a dozen of them in the back acre.
I fed a fox in my yard through a bad summer drought (the wet-food cups my cat didn't finish), though I think a neighbor shot her this year.
Speaking of, a massive turtle in my yard (probably 50 y-o) enjoyed the same cat food cups.



There's gotta be more than a little tongue-in-cheek on this thread.
I gave the example of Ewell's success with fur dubbing shed from his cat.
Steve and I used to tie hot warmwater flies with colorful molt feathers from his double yellowhead parrot.


Last edited by bulldog1935 on 03 May 2023, 14:08, edited 1 time in total.

Top
  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

1, 2  Next New Topic Add Reply



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Jump to:  
Google
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group