Is It Just Me?

[Leonard]

I know there are a lot of tiers out there....

But has anyone noticed a decline in the quality of some of their products...

Pine squirrel for one..

I have noticed some really short skins. The cardboard they put it on is usually full and really good looking skins.. Here lately I have seen a few skins that are about a third of the size they should be. I seen a couple skins that had very few strips on them... I use a lot of pine squirrels... I think this year alone I used over 20-25 skins and most shops sells them for over $16-17 each.

Some of the ones I have seen recently are missing about 2 (maybe 2 1/2) inches from the skin.... they may have been the younger squirrels..

I know that squirrels loose fur and regrow it.. time of year..size of the squirrels (young and mature)...

Not to run the skin thing in the ground.. but I also got strip packages (in the past) that looked like someone had used a skin and throw the left over pieces in a bag (strip that could even lay across a size 12 hook)...

Before I started buying the skins you would get 3-5 strips (most was about 6inches long

Pines aren't the only thing Ive been noticing...

threads... some of the 6/0 and the 3/0 just doesnt seem as strong as it use to be..

the longer marabou plumes.. yes They have some thick stem... but some of them are just to thick.

peacock herl... maybe I'm just not wrapping it right,.... Ive been getting a lot of "breakage" from them.. I thought It may have been too old.. went and got a new one... same thing..

went to a light thread.. then tried to wrap it around the thread...

I guess if I sat down and really thought about it I could come up with a few more items..

Yes this is just a bit of a vent...

Has anyone else noticed this on some of the other things..

Leonard

[timsfly]

I go thru several thousand dollars worth of wapsi a month, really haven't seen a problem on my end, now I don't buy skins very often, I just buy the strips, rabbit, squirrel and mink.

All have been good so far this year.

Threads seem to be good also, I use about 12 spools of monocord a month myself(3/0), black, brown, and red, and a lot of 6/0 uni-thread and it is all just fine.

I have a couple of tiers that go thru 2 or 3 doz spools of mono cord(3/0) a month and have been having no problems what so ever.

Wapsi has as good a quality as anybody, much better than some out there

[Leonard]

Your right...

they have some good quality materials... but this is what Ive been finding in more then just one shop...

1... the brown is a full skin..... 2... Nice long skin... but hardly any hide.. maybe a dozen or so strips.....

then the is number 3...... Very short skin... it has some fullness... but NO lenght...

[timsfly]

Maybe you should get into growing squirrels for their hides, like they do chickens for their hackles ?

Commercial squirrel farms, it would be nice if we had 20lb squirrels, those hides would be dandies.

Maybe it has just been a bad year for squirrels.

[fishinwrench]

I'm glad you brought this up !!! When I first started buying squirrel hides about 2 years ago I could usually get 3 #8 PS leaches per strip (without having to two-piece" them).....but the last 4-5 skins I have reluctantly purchased (because it is all i can find) I only get one good fly per strip and then have to scavenge leftover pieces to build more.

Add in the cost of a hook and bead and you have one fairly expensive leach.

I also got one skin that looked really good BUT the skin was tender (thin as paper) and the strips would tear way too easily....So now I always open up the bag and give the strips a tug to test that, and at 15 buck per...I won't take a chance ordering one online anymore.

[Phil Lilley]

Leonard was referring to the skins in my shop. I buy dozens at a time- the last shipment was mostly smaller hides. I'm ordering more today- again 30-40 hides. We'll see how they look.

[Phil Lilley]

This is what Wapsi says about pine squirrel skins:

"Pine Squirrel's extra thin hide and super dense hair allows us to make zonker strips in a size unseen before now. Naturally barred, the hairs also make great tails on nymphs"

Hairline doesn't carry but individual strips and just natural, not dyed.

[Phil Lilley]

Got to comparing the skins with the individual strips.

Skins are $13- $15 and strips are $3. Wapsi says there's 2 feet of strip in the packages so you can buy 4-5 packages or 8-10 feet of strip for the same money as the skins.

I think I'll order more individual packages than skins this time.

[Jeremy Hunt]

Leonard,

I emailed Wapsi this post after I talked to Eric on the phone about this. He should have a answer for you in the next day or two.

Phil,

I wouldn't order loose packs of pine squirrel. I would always promote the whole skins instead of the loose packs that have the individual strips. Even if the squirrels are small. Sometime this happens from the vendors they go through. I’m sure it’s just a batch they have to run through. Also dying the hide can also shrink them. This happens to deer hair quite a bit. If your using these for commercial ties I would use the strips that don’t already have the memory from the fold in the bag. You will get a better looking fly (every time) in the end result.

This also goes for rabbit if anyone out there was wondering.

Just my two cents…..