Wapsi Black Bear Hair

Known for its use in the world of salmon and steelhead flies, Wapsi Black Bear Hair is a unique natural material that gives your flies a classic appearance that just plain works. Black Bear Hair has stiff guard hairs with excellent length, and its glossy appearance adds just a bit of shine to your flies while maintaining a look of subtlety. With coarse underfur, you can also tie up super buggy patterns that have a nice dark appearance—think big ol' stoneflies and hellgrammites. Each patch comes with high-quality fibers, and whether you're swinging flies on the Salmon River or drifting big nymphs for hungry smallmouth bass, Black Bear Hair is a material that will have you ready for it all.

Uses

Since Black Bear Hair has both long, rigid guard hairs and a coarse underfur, this material can be used in a variety of ways. It's a great choice for tying wings on streamers and steelhead/salmon flies, but its underfur has a coarse texture that excels when tying super buggy nymphs and chunky streamer bodies.

Comparisons

Black Bear Hair is a material that's unlike others on the market, and for that reason, there really isn't an excellent substitute material. If you can't get your hands on Black Bear and want something that will function similarly, Hareline's Large North Bucktail in the color black would be an okay alternative. However, Bucktail and Black Bear Hair aren't the same in that Bucktail will be much longer without any underfur and it lacks the glossy natural shades of dark brown and black that are found on Black Bear Hair.