Hareline Natural Elk Hair

Stimulators, Elk Hair Caddis, the list of super effective flies goes on and Natural Elk Hair is a primary component to them all. Hareline’s Natural Elk Hair is a high-quality patch of Elk Hair that’s great for a variety of different flies. Natural Elk Hair has nice hollow fibers that are very buoyant and durable, and this is a material that’s in a variety of different fly patterns. A staple material for a bunch of different flies, Hareline’s Natural Elk Hair should be on your desk whether you’re whipping up a dozen hoppers for a remote stream in Montana or getting ready for the first caddis hatch of the year on the Kennebec River in Maine.

Uses

Natural Elk Hair is a versatile material with a ton of different uses. Elk Hair is a great choice for downwing flies like stoneflies, caddis, hoppers, and some small emergers, but it has many other uses as well, like its ability to build durable and buoyant extended bodies on large hex mayflies and dragon/damselflies. And while Elk Hair is often thought of when tying dry flies, it’s been  used to tie small versions of Bob Popovics’s Bulkhead Streamers that swim like no other, and it can also be used as a wingcase for those times whenever you need your nymph to swim higher in the water column.

Comparisons

Natural Elk Hair is most commonly compared to Deer Hair, and while these fibers look very similar to one another, there are some key differences that set the two apart. Both Elk Hair and Deer Hair are hollow fibers that have great natural buoyancy, but Elk Hair fibers are larger and have more air trapped in them. This makes them a great choice for tying flies that will be fished in fast water or when tying larger flies like a size 6 Stimulator. Deer Hair, on the other hand, is a great choice when tying smaller flies because you can add more fibers to the fly without the additional bulk that the thicker Elk Hair fibers would create. Also, Deer Hair is a superior choice for spinning and trimming flies like Dahlberg Divers. To sum it up, they both have their primary uses and there can be used with some interchangeability, but whenever you need a more buoyant material or are tying larger flies, Elk Hair is the way to go

Example Flies

Elk Hair gets worked into a wide variety of patterns, but some of the most famous patterns are:

• Elk Hair Caddis
• Stimulator
• Humpy