Why You Should Give Fly Fishers Your Pet Hair
BHS sophomore Tony Leintz has been requesting pet hair from his classmates as an alternative to buying expensive animal hair at fishing stores.
Many students in Tony Leintz’s classes might have heard him ask for their pet’s hair for his fishing. Many of those students also are confused at the request, because how does pet hair connect with fishing? Here Tony answers some of the questions those students might have, and why you should give him your pet’s hair.
What is fly fishing?
“Fly fishing is when you have a very lightweight hook that is decorated with feathers, line, twine, string, or hair, or whatever to try to imitate insects, flies, even fish sometimes. Because it’s so lightweight you can’t use normal tackle so you have to use a special line that essentially is just a braided line with a coating of plastic or wax to make it heavier so you can cast without having any weight on it. You use the line’s weight instead of the hook’s weight to cast.”
Why did you start fly fishing?
“I went to Colorado, and that’s the only good type of fishing there.”
How is pet hair a factor in fly fishing?
“Any hair is. I use my own, and I use feathers from my chickens. You gotta use different colors of hair to imitate naturally occurring colors to then imitate flies, larvae, beetles, and bugs that you find.”
Why should people give you their pet hair?
“I need pet hair, or any hair really, to get more of those colors because Cabela’s and other fly fishing stores, especially in Colorado, charge insane amounts of money for hair that isn’t even always that high quality of hair. When you’re paying $6.00 for a square inch of hair, it’s not really worth it.”
