The Rabbit Prince

Rabbit princes are becoming a favorite, mainly due to the fact they’re based on supply and demand. They catch a ton of fish, and the entire process is fun. When the summer came to an end, I noticed that every time I’d pet one of my rabbits, I’d have fur all over my hands. As a fly tyer, my natural instinct was to get a bag, and start collecting. I started searching fly tying forums about DIY dubbing and ways to separate guard hairs. One of the ways I have come across was called an air separation. I used Nitrogen, and once I dialed it in it’s become a very efficient way to separate guard hairs. After the separation, I put the remaining fur into a grinder, and spin it until it’s makes a nice little ball of loosely intertwined fur. For the longest time, all I would offer was white and gray. It didn’t take long before white and gray weren’t enough, and I ordered some dye. It took me a very long time with a lot of wasted rabbit fur, but I found a formula that works very well. The only issue is that I can never get the purple to be exactly the same from batch to batch. I’ve also found that a light wash in dish soap before the initial air separation makes the process a lot smoother. As of now, the process goes like this. Harvest the fur, wash, air dry, air separate, blend, dye, wash, blend again, then bag for later use. It really is a labor of love, honestly it’s probably not worth the trouble. Could i just buy a bag of rabbit dubbing? Yes…but i won’t. I want to give you something that is uniquely mine, something you won’t get from anyone else. When someone posts a picture of a fish caught with a rabbit prince, it really makes it that much more special.