Kenneth & Barbie

As I suspect is prone to happen occasionally in homes where children reside, someone at my house recently decided that a Barbie doll needed a haircut. Actually, I think it was a Barbie head that had lost it's body. Either way, the haircut resulted in a nice little cluster of straight, black synthetic hair strands, and it wasn't long before Barbie's clippings were in a little bag on my tying table.

I've played with a few designs with different lengths of Barbie's hair, buy my favorite so far combined it with a cluster of fur from our dog Kenneth, along it a few peacock quills and a bit of peacock dubbing. Barbie's hair, which I cut to a about twice the length of Kenneth's fur, is in the middle. Kenneth's contribution is frizzy, so it flares nicely around the straight tail. I haven't seen the Kenneth & Barbie bug in the water yet, but I like the way it looks in the vice.

Gift From Kenneth the Dog

Kenneth must have been listening at least one of those times when I told him how well his fur works for tying fish-catching jigs. When I returned from travels, I found this beautiful pile of Kenneth fur in my office. He's a humble little dude, though. When I thanked him for the tying material, he looked at me like he didn't know what I was talking about.

I mostly tie 1/32- and 1/64-ounce jigs, along with a few flies, from his fur, so that pile will last a very long time, and he looked just as fluffy as ever, so I'm pretty sure I can find more when I need it. In case you wonder about the color difference, by the way, he really does look a lot blacker than his fur does off of him. The picture shows the fur lighter than it really is and with a little different tone, but the hair itself is kind of a dark grey, while he looks black. Of course, the jigs look pretty black when they are wet. The fur also looks and feels straight on Kenneth, but it has a bit of kink to it and flairs out on jigs. That characteristic, along with its buoyancy, are keys to its effectiveness, in my opinion.

I just know that Kenneth Bugs catch fish, so I appreciate for the nice little gift he left for me.

Kenneth Flies

I've mentioned Kenneth Bugs a few times in past blogs. They are hair jigs tied from the fur of our black dog Kenneth.

 

I tied the first ones as a novelty, amused by the idea if catching fish from something made from my dog's shed fur (easily amused, I know). However, it didn't take long to figure out that there was something about Kenneth's fur that made it work well in the water. Kenneth Bugs outperformed similar jigs tied from black crafthair, bucktail or marabou. I tie and use them now not for novelty but simply because they produce fish.

 

Next week's trout outing is a fly fishing trip, though, so I decided I'd better tie some Kenneth Flies to try. Same basic design. (I won't say pattern because I tie every one a little differently.) Just tied on streamer hooks instead  of jigheads.

 

First two are pictured. I hope to tie several before the end of the weekend. If I end up having opportunity to use them, I'll try to remember to report back how they do!