Rabbit Strips and Hides

The last decade has seen fly tyers go crazy figuring out cool new ways to put rabbit fur on hooks to lure fish to hand worldwide. The availability of different colors and types of on-the-hide rabbit fur products is so diverse that it becomes difficult, sometimes, knowing where to start. Salmon and steelhead – check. Bass – yep. Bonefish – sure. Tarpon, pike, piranha, peacock bass, hammerhead sharks, and Loch Ness monsters – absolutely. Rabbit is an extremely versatile fly tying material because the fur-on-hide is so easy to use – and the combination of colors and material sizes is amazing.

Sources All of the rabbit-hide fly tying products distributed by Hareline Dubbin and offered by the Caddis Fly Shop are from domesticated breeds.

Color Types – the variety is staggering and includes natural shades; white hides dyed a single color; hides with the under-fur one dyed one color and the guard hairs a different color; hides with the under fur dyed one color and barred stripes across the guard hairs; hides that are dyed two-tone with black, brown, or olive bars across the tips; fluorescent colors; natural subtle colors; flesh tones; and practically unimaginable colors.

Rabbit Color Overview (close to a hundred color combination sin different cuts) White, dyed, and natural – 44 colors Black Barred – 15 colors Brown Barred – 5 colors Olive barred – 5 colors Two Tone flesh strips – 7 colors Two Tone Dark tips – 11 colors Tiger Barred – 4 colors Bunnybou – 9 colors

Rabbit Hide Product Overview Whole hides Whole hides, crosscut Whole hides, stripped at 1/8” Whole hides, stripped at Ό” Packaged Crosscut Packaged Straight cut (1/8”strips) Packaged Magnum cut (1/4” strips) Packaged Micro cut (narrower than 1/8” strips) – 13 colors Packaged Bunnybou

Hide Cut Styles Crosscut – cut across the hide. Crosscut is only offered in 1/8”. Strips – cut from head to tail of the hide. Strips are offered in micro, standard (1/8”), and magnum (1/4”) sizes.