EVERY BUCKTAIL HAS A HOME
Let's clear something up right away: grading bucktail isn't about picking the prettiest tail off the shelf. It comes down to two things — fiber length and fiber characteristics. Length is considered first, then its characteristics. In predator fly tying, a tail's hollow or semi-hollow structure is the secret sauce: it's what lets a big fly maintain its profile, push water, and breathe while staying light enough to actually fly cast instead of tearing your rotator cuff.
Important note: Every bucktail has its own personality. Hollow-ness and wavy-ness still vary within each grade. If there is a specific quality that you are looking for (within a certain grade), please leave notes at checkout and I will do my best to accommodate. If you are unsure, let me know what you are tying and I can assist.
Here's the part most people don't know: dyeing bucktail with rich/deep colors is where a lot of good hair goes to die (pun intended). The dye process can wreck that hollow structure if you're not careful. So I'm careful. Many small batch companies purposefully aim for pastel colors to avoid frying hair. Not me. The stained tannic Musky water of the Northwoods requires it.
Now, on to the grades.
A Grade — The Workhorse
Minimum 3.5–4" measured at the top of the tail (the shortest hair up there), which means you're often getting length beyond that once you get further down. This is hollow or semi-hollow fiber through and through. It's the stuff we reach for when we're building the biggest, baddest flies in the box. It's also a favorite for spinning, stacking, and other tying styles where that hollow fiber does its best work.
This is Figure Eats best seller.
Clouser Grade — Same Quality, Shorter Fiber
Under 3.5". Same fiber characteristics as our A Grade — same hollow or semi-hollow structure, same care in the dye bath — just shorter in length. If your pattern doesn't need the extra inches, no sense paying for hair you're going to trim off anyway. As Bob Popovic said, "A long fiber cut short is not the same as a short fiber". If your project requires short hair that flares, cutting a long fiber short will remove the hollow portion of the fiber leaving it unusable. For what it's worth - I tie all my Musky Gliders with Clouser grade hair that's about 3" long.
This is the most underrated and under-utilized grade of the bunch.
Butcher's Choice Grade — The Star of Each Batch
Butcher's Choice isn't its own grade — it's a mark of distinction stamped on top of one. Every tail wearing this sticker still fits the length and fiber standards of whatever grade it's tagged with (A or Clouser), but it's the best of the best from that batch: the biggest, juiciest, most consistent tail in the bunch. Honestly, these are the tails that would normally disappear straight into my own personal tying stash before they ever made it to the website. I hand-pick 3 to 5 standouts from every dye pot — so when you see that sticker, you're not just getting a great grade, you're getting the best example of it.
Heads up: every Butcher's Choice tail ships with an orange sticker slapped right on it — the same kind you'd find on a USDA Prime ribeye at the butcher counter. Same idea here: this one's the best cut.
Hair Jig Grade — Softer Side
This is the only grade not graded by length but by fiber characteristics, typically 2.5"-4" fibers but softer and way less hollow. If you're after that flowing, human hair-like quality and movement for jigs, this is your grade. These fibers will have minimal flare under thread tension.
Walleye and bass anglers take note.
AA Grade — The Unicorn
Same top-shelf fiber quality as our A Grade, but longer. This stuff doesn't come around often — when a tail is good enough to earn a AA tag, we have a special bin that collects them. Once that bin is full, we announce a date and time that they will become available so everyone gets a fair chance. No, you cannot pre-order them and no, I will not save them for you. We do our best to keep things fair for everyone and this is the best way.
Sign up for our email list and follow our social pages, because when AA drops, it goes fast.
A quick, honest disclaimer: your phone screen and our dye lot are not always going to agree on what "chartreuse" means. Lighting, screens, and dye pot variations all play a part, so expect the color in hand to be close, just maybe not pixel-perfect, to what you saw online. Anything with "flame" in the product title uses proprietary dye technique and will have even more variation, even within a single dye pot. Tails that have color gradients and fades get labeled with "flame" and each tail will vary. I hope you appreciate their unique personality. I sure do.
Some of these tails will have "character" and may even look like they came from a deer who spent its life dodging semi trucks on Hwy 51 and jumping barbed wire fences into burr-infested swamps. This is not to say that they are junk, but just that these are products from real wild animals harvested in the upper midwest during deer hunting season. I do my best to brush them clean, but from time to time a single burr or dead tick gets missed. Don't worry, it's a testament to their authenticity and an ode to their story.
