Fly Tying · Materials Guide
Natural vs. Synthetic Fly Tying Materials
Movement, flotation, durability, consistency and how to choose by function instead of category
Natural and synthetic fly tying materials are not opposing camps. They are different sets of tools. The useful question is not which category is better. It is which material gives the fly the movement, profile, flotation, sink rate, durability and visual signal you need.
Fly tying lives between biology and engineering. On one side are feathers, hair, fur, quills and herl shaped by the structure of an animal. On the other are fibers, foams, flash, chenilles and films manufactured to deliver repeatable characteristics. Both can produce extraordinary flies. Both can also be the wrong choice when their physical properties do not match the job.
That is why we do not treat natural fly tying materials and synthetic fly tying materials as a simple realism-versus-durability argument. A deer hair patch, CDC feather and rabbit strip have almost nothing in common mechanically even though all three are natural. Closed-cell foam, Krystal Flash and EP Fibers are equally different from one another despite all being synthetic.
The Short Version
- Choose by physical property, not category. “Natural” and “synthetic” are origins, not performance specifications.
- Natural materials often provide complex taper, texture and irregularity. Marabou, soft hackle, rabbit and natural hair remain difficult to replace in many applications.
- Synthetics can deliver properties nature does not. Closed-cell foam, reflective flash and water-shedding engineered fibers let tiers control flotation, light and profile very precisely.
- Neither category automatically floats, sinks or lasts longer. Those outcomes depend on the individual material, construction and how much of it is tied into the fly.
- Many of the best patterns use both. Natural movement and synthetic structure, flash or buoyancy are often complementary.
What Counts as a Natural Fly Tying Material?
Natural materials come from animal or plant sources. In modern fly tying, the most important examples are animal-based: feathers, hair, fur, hides, quills and herl.
Feather Craft's Natural Fly Tying Materials category includes materials such as:
- Rooster and hen hackle
- CDC, marabou, pheasant, partridge and other game-bird feathers
- Deer hair, elk hair, bucktail, rabbit, squirrel and other hair and fur
- Peacock herl, quills and biots
- Natural dubbing fibers and blends
The important point is that “natural” does not describe one behavior. Rooster dry-fly hackle is genetically selected for stiff barbs and fine stems. Marabou is prized for extremely soft fibers. Bucktail maintains shape and resists collapsing compared with softer fur. Rabbit moves very differently from deer hair. Each material has to be understood on its own terms.
Natural materials also vary within the same species and even across one skin. The body hair on a deer does not have identical diameter, medulla, texture or compression characteristics from patch to patch. Scientific examination of deer hair shows substantial differences in diameter and internal structure among hair types. That variability is one reason experienced tiers choose particular patches for particular jobs rather than treating “deer hair” as one universal material.
What Counts as a Synthetic Fly Tying Material?
Synthetic materials are manufactured rather than harvested from a natural skin, feather or plant. The category is enormous and includes materials designed for completely different mechanical jobs.
Feather Craft's Synthetic Fly Tying Materials category includes:
- EP Fibers, craft fur, yarns, rubber legs, films and specialty fibers
- Flashabou, Krystal Flash and other reflective materials
- Foam sheets, cylinders and shaped foam bodies
- Chenille and synthetic dubbing
- Brushes built from synthetic fibers, flash, rubber and wire cores
- Tubing, skins, shellback films and molded components
Again, the category name does not predict behavior. EP Fibers are designed to shed water and hold a baitfish profile. Krystal Flash exists primarily to manipulate reflected light. Rainy's Evazote Foam is used for buoyant terrestrial bodies. Those three materials solve unrelated problems.
Natural vs. Synthetic at a Glance
| Design question | Natural materials often offer | Synthetic materials often offer |
|---|---|---|
| Movement | Complex taper, soft fibers and irregular motion from marabou, fur and soft hackle. | Movement ranging from very soft to deliberately rigid, depending on fiber design. |
| Profile | Natural taper and texture; some variability between pieces. | Repeatable length, diameter and density; easy profile duplication. |
| Flotation | Specific materials such as selected deer hair, CDC and dry-fly hackle can support surface flies. | Foams and certain engineered fibers can provide highly predictable flotation. |
| Flash / light | Iridescence, mottling and translucency from materials such as peacock herl and feathers. | Metallic, holographic, fluorescent and UV-responsive effects unavailable in the same form naturally. |
| Consistency | Greater piece-to-piece variation; selection and grading matter. | Generally higher dimensional and color consistency within a manufactured product. |
| Durability | Varies widely. Some feathers and hides are robust; others are fragile or susceptible to pests in storage. | Often excellent, but thin flash, foam, rubber and fine fibers can still tear, cut or degrade. |
The Important Correction
Do not use “natural” and “synthetic” as shorthand for how a material interacts with water. A synthetic fiber may absorb essentially no water, while another synthetic yarn may wet readily. A natural CDC feather behaves differently from marabou, and both behave differently from deer hair. Compare the specific material.
Movement: Fiber Shape Matters More Than Origin
Natural materials have earned their reputation for movement because several of the best moving materials in fly tying happen to come from animals.
Marabou has long, extremely soft fibers that move under very little water pressure. Rabbit hide strips add a flexible leather base under soft fur, allowing the entire strip to undulate. Pine squirrel provides a shorter, tighter version of that natural-fur movement, which is why we use it when rabbit creates too much profile. Our Pine Squirrel guide goes deeper into that comparison.
Soft game-bird and hen hackles create another type of motion. The individual fibers sweep backward, collapse and reopen as current pressure changes. That is the mechanical foundation of the patterns covered in our Soft Hackle Flies guide.
But natural fibers do not own movement. Modern synthetics can be engineered across a huge range of stiffness and diameter. Enrico Puglisi describes its standard EP Fibers as having action between marabou and bucktail, while its thinner Silky Fibers are designed specifically for more supple small-fly movement. The key is choosing the right synthetic rather than comparing one generic bundle of “synthetics” against marabou.
Movement is not a natural-material property. It is the result of fiber diameter, stiffness, taper, density and how the material is attached to the hook.
Feather Craft Tying Bench
Flotation: Stop Calling Every Floating Material “Buoyant”
Dry-fly flotation is more complicated than whether a material “floats.” A fly can be supported by trapped air, low material density, water repellency, surface tension and the way its materials distribute weight across the film.
Deer and elk hair
Deer-family hair is commonly described at the tying bench as “hollow.” More precisely, deer hairs contain a large medulla with cellular or lattice-like structure and air spaces. That structure contributes low density and gives selected body hair the compression and flotation characteristics tiers exploit in dry flies, hoppers and spun-hair bugs.
Not every patch behaves the same way. Season, body location and individual hair type change diameter and internal structure. That is why the right deer or elk hair patch should be chosen for the actual pattern rather than simply by species name.
CDC
CDC is another case where the simple explanation is incomplete. The feathers come from around the preen gland, but their effectiveness is not just “natural oil makes them float.” Their fine branching structure traps tiny air pockets and interacts with surface tension. Orvis' technical CDC guidance specifically emphasizes feather structure as a major part of its flotation behavior. Our CDC Feather Guide covers that in detail.
Foam and engineered dry-fly fibers
Synthetics can create highly predictable surface performance because manufacturers can design specifically around water interaction. Foam gives tiers a durable body with low density and stable shape. Certain engineered dry-fly fibers go further: EP states that its Trigger Point Fibers absorb zero water and are designed to shed water while supporting dry-fly applications.
That does not mean all synthetics float better than all natural materials. It means a particular engineered material can provide a very specific flotation behavior.
Sink Rate: The Old Natural-vs.-Synthetic Rule Does Not Hold
The old version of this article reduced sink rate to “natural integrates, synthetic resists.” We would not use that rule.
Sink rate is controlled by the whole fly: hook wire, bead or added weight, total material volume, trapped air, water resistance, cross-sectional area and the amount of material that actually wets. A sparse EP Fiber baitfish can shed water efficiently yet still fish subsurface because the hook and presentation pull it under. A dense natural deer-hair head can resist submersion because it carries substantial trapped air and presents a large surface area.
The same applies to nymphs. A tungsten bead has a much larger effect on depth than whether the thorax is natural hare's ear or synthetic dubbing. Materials still matter, but the category label is rarely the dominant variable.
If depth is the goal, design the complete system: hook weight, bead or underbody weight, profile, material density and current speed. Then choose natural or synthetic fibers based on the movement and appearance you want around that weighting system.
Durability: Synthetic Usually Helps, but There Are No Free Passes
Synthetic materials often have a durability advantage because they do not depend on delicate biological structures. EP, for example, explicitly markets its fibers around durability and water shedding, and modern synthetic brushes can survive repeated fish that would tear apart some delicate natural dressings.
But “synthetic equals indestructible” is just as misleading as “natural equals fragile.” Thin flash can split or kink. Foam can be cut by thread or teeth. Rubber and silicone legs can tear. Some coatings age poorly after heat or long-term storage.
Natural materials vary just as much. A fragile peacock herl body may benefit from counter-ribbing or reinforcement. A properly tied bucktail wing can take substantial abuse. Rooster hackle can survive many fish if the stem is secured and the fly is handled correctly.
Durability is therefore a construction question as much as a material question. Reinforcement, thread placement, adhesive use and how deeply a fish takes the fly all matter.
Consistency: This Is Where Synthetics Have a Clear Design Advantage
Manufacturing makes dimensional repeatability possible. A package of one synthetic fiber can be produced at controlled diameter, length, color and texture. For a commercial tier or anyone tying dozens of identical flies, that repeatability is valuable.
Natural materials require more selection. No two capes are perfectly identical. Bucktails vary in fiber length and texture. Deer hair changes by body location and season. A partridge skin contains many different feather sizes and markings.
That variability is not automatically a weakness. It gives the tier a broader palette inside one natural skin. One partridge skin may cover tiny soft hackles through larger wets. A cape offers many hackle sizes. A bucktail contains different fiber qualities from base to tip.
Natural-material grading exists precisely because variation matters. The Whiting Farms Hackle Grades guide is a good example: higher grade primarily reflects greater usable yield and grading characteristics across the pelt, not a declaration that every lower-grade feather is inferior.
Color, Flash and Light
This is one of the areas where combining categories becomes especially useful.
Natural materials give us complex optical effects that are difficult to duplicate exactly. Peacock herl changes color as the viewing angle changes. Mottled game-bird feathers break up a silhouette without requiring printed markings. Natural hair carries small differences in shade from fiber to fiber.
Synthetics give us access to effects that nature does not provide in the same controllable form. Krystal Flash, holographic films, fluorescent fibers and UV-responsive materials can be added in precise amounts. A tier can put two strands into a natural wing or build an entire baitfish from reflective synthetic material.
This is why “realism” should not be reduced to natural equals realistic and synthetic equals attractor. A well-designed synthetic baitfish can achieve an extremely convincing silhouette and translucency. A natural feather can be deliberately flashy or highly visible. Fish respond to the finished visual system, not the origin label on the material package.
How the Materials Behave at the Vise
Water performance matters most, but handling characteristics determine whether you can build the intended fly cleanly.
| Material behavior | Natural example | Synthetic example |
|---|---|---|
| Compresses under thread | Deer hair can flare dramatically as thread pressure increases. | Foam can compress and cut if thread pressure is concentrated too sharply. |
| Maintains linear profile | Bucktail offers natural taper while retaining useful stiffness. | EP Fibers can be stacked and trimmed to repeat baitfish profiles consistently. |
| Wraps around a shank | Hackle, herl and soft feathers change behavior as stem diameter and fiber length change. | Chenille, yarn and synthetic brush give highly repeatable wrapped bodies or collars. |
| Can be shaped after tying | Spun deer hair can be clipped into poppers, divers and heads. | Foam and synthetic fibers can be cut, sanded, trimmed and marked very precisely. |
The best material is often the one that lets you execute the design with the fewest compromises. A technically “realistic” fiber is not useful if it creates a tie-in twice as bulky as the natural profile you are trying to imitate.
Choose by Fly Type
| Fly type | Natural strengths | Synthetic strengths | Common blend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dry flies | Genetic hackle, CDC, deer/elk hair, natural tails. | Foam, synthetic posts, engineered dry-fly fibers, high-visibility indicators. | Natural hackle and tail with a synthetic post or foam body. |
| Nymphs | Hare's ear, pheasant tail, peacock herl, soft hackle. | Flash, synthetic dubbing, shellback film, rubber legs. | Natural body or thorax with a synthetic hot spot, flashback or legs. |
| Streamers | Marabou, rabbit, squirrel, bucktail, saddle hackle. | EP Fibers, craft fur, flash, brushes, tubing. | Natural movement material supported by synthetic flash or profile fibers. |
| Saltwater flies | Bucktail, saddle hackle, rabbit and selected natural collars. | Water-shedding fibers, flash, brushes, molded eyes and durable tubing. | Bucktail or hackle integrated with synthetic baitfish fibers and flash. |
| Terrestrials | Deer or elk hair, natural hackle. | Foam, rubber legs, synthetic wings and indicators. | Foam body with natural hackle or hair elements. |
When We Reach for Natural Materials
We reach for natural materials when the material itself supplies a useful combination of taper, movement, texture or structure that would be difficult to reproduce efficiently another way.
- Marabou when a tail or wing needs movement with almost no retrieve speed.
- Rabbit or pine squirrel when hide-based articulation and fur movement are part of the pattern.
- Bucktail when a tapered hair wing needs structure without behaving like a solid synthetic sheet.
- Soft game-bird or hen feathers when individual fibers need to sweep and open in current.
- Genetic rooster hackle when a dry fly needs stiff, fine barbs in precise hook sizes.
- CDC when a small fly needs fine structure, trapped air and a low surface-film presentation.
These are functional choices, not nostalgic ones. We use natural materials because those specific materials do the job.
When We Reach for Synthetic Materials
We reach for synthetics when repeatability, engineered buoyancy, precise profile, flash or extreme color control matters more than reproducing the irregular structure of a natural material.
- Foam when the body itself needs stable flotation and easy shaping.
- EP Fibers and similar baitfish fibers when we need repeatable length, water shedding and profile control.
- Flash materials when reflected light is part of the trigger.
- Synthetic dubbing when color, sparkle and batch consistency matter.
- Rubber or silicone legs when exaggerated movement and color are deliberate design elements.
- Brushes when we want a repeatable composite of fibers, flash, legs or natural material that can be wrapped quickly.
The Synthetic Fly Tying Materials hub separates these by brushes, chenille, dubbing, flash, foam and specialty synthetics so the material can be selected by function rather than by one enormous catch-all category.
The Best Modern Flies Usually Ignore the Debate
Look at a modern fly box and the natural-versus-synthetic argument collapses quickly.
A dry fly may combine a foam body, synthetic indicator and natural hackle. A streamer may use a marabou tail, synthetic brush body and a few strands of flash. A nymph may pair pheasant tail with a synthetic shellback and fluorescent hot spot. A saltwater baitfish may combine bucktail with EP Fibers and holographic flash.
Each material is there because it contributes a specific property.
Use Natural For
Complex Organic Structure
Taper, mottling, irregularity, fur movement, feather mobility and naturally occurring optical effects.
Use Synthetic For
Engineered Control
Repeatable profile, stable foam structure, reflective flash, fluorescent color, manufactured fiber diameter and easy batch consistency.
The result is not a compromise. It is often a better-designed fly than either category could produce alone.
Storage and Material Care
Natural materials require one extra category of attention: insects. Moths, carpet beetles and other pests can destroy feathers, fur and hair. Keep skins and loose natural materials clean, dry and separated enough that an infestation can be identified before it spreads through an entire collection.
Synthetics eliminate that biological pest problem, but they are not maintenance-free. Heat can deform some foams and plastics. Rubber legs and similar elastomers can age or react with other materials. Long fibers become kinked if they are crushed. Adhesive contamination can permanently mat both synthetic and natural materials.
Store both categories according to what the material actually is. “Synthetic” is no more useful as a storage instruction than “natural.”
Cost: Compare Usable Flies, Not Package Price
Natural materials often have a higher upfront price when they are graded as whole skins or pelts. A quality cape or saddle can cost far more than one package of synthetic fiber, but it may also tie hundreds of flies. That is why our Whiting grading guide looks at usable yield rather than simply the retail price of the pelt.
Synthetics can be inexpensive, but specialized engineered fibers, brushes and molded components are not automatically budget materials. Cost per fly depends on how much material the pattern uses, how much is wasted at the vise and how long the finished fly survives.
For both categories, the right calculation is the same: how many useful flies can you tie from the material, and does its performance justify the cost for the pattern?
A Better Way to Choose Fly Tying Materials
Instead of asking whether natural or synthetic is better, ask these questions in order:
Material Selection Checklist
- What profile should the finished fly have?
- How much movement should the material create?
- Does the fly need to float, suspend or sink?
- Should the material hold shape or collapse?
- How much flash, translucency or contrast do we want?
- How much abuse will the fly take?
- Do we need to reproduce this exact fly dozens of times?
- What tie-in bulk does the material create on this hook size?
Answer those questions and the natural-versus-synthetic label becomes much less important. The physical requirement usually points toward a short list of materials on its own.
Materials Are Functions, Not Teams
Natural fly tying materials give us structures that evolution already solved: feathers built around airflow and insulation, hair with specialized internal geometry, fur that protects and moves, and iridescent surfaces that change with viewing angle.
Synthetic materials let us specify properties: a foam thickness, a fluorescent color, a reflective film, a fiber that sheds water, a brush with a known diameter or a baitfish material that repeats the same profile fly after fly.
Neither category replaces the other. The modern tying bench is stronger because we have both.
Choose by the job. If marabou creates the movement you need, use marabou. If EP Fibers hold the baitfish profile better, use EP Fibers. If foam gives the terrestrial the flotation and shape it needs, use foam. If a partridge feather makes a better soft-hackle collar than anything manufactured, there is no reason to engineer around it.
Browse Feather Craft's complete Fly Tying Materials selection, or compare our dedicated Natural Fly Tying Materials and Synthetic Fly Tying Materials collections by the function your next fly needs.
Feather Craft · Est. 1955