bombora - Thanks and no problem on the questions. Will see what all i can answer for you......
First off, i can never remember if the longer stuff is officially called craft FUR or craft HAIR. I personally like using it because of several factors. One of the big reasons is honestly the cost. I get the majority of mine from a couple different local craft shops and it is a fraction of the price of the fly tying material. At the craft shop you can get 4 times the amount for the same price. On the down side, the craft shop does not have as wide a selection of colors and really only carries the basic colors. If i check around different shops though, can get just about everything but pink and chartreuse.
I also prefer getting it at a local shop so i can pick it up and physically see how long the hair fibers are. There are some differences between brands. What i purchase usually has about 3" to 3.5" (8-9 cm) long fibers..... but it has 'underfur' that is shorter as well. After cutting a hunk of it off the hide, i pinch the longer fibers that i want to use tightly between my fingers and pull out the shorter fluff with my other hand. It only take a quick second to do.
There is a learning curve getting used to how it cuts off the hide and ties on the hook shank. But once you get used to working with it, the material is pretty much always consistent so it becomes easy to know what to expect and how it will behave. It gets very easy to spread around the hook shank or lead collar. It seems like working with real fur/feathers can sometimes be considerably different between each individual feather or tail.
I would say that it is not translucent. The colors are pretty much all opaque that i have ever worked with. However, if you look at my top 2 jigs in the picture you can see how the flash material tied first to the shank does show through when you tie the fur on thinly. The thinner tails have more action also.
It has great action in the water overall. Good fluid movement something like marabou, but is WAY more durable than marabou. Only disadvantage i can think of is that the tails can get twisted up into hair ball around hooks if you just throw a pile of tied jigs in a box and carry them around that way. If you keep them in a fly type box or with hook points stuck in foam of some sort, there is no tail tangling issues.
Craft fur has become one of my favorite materials to work with right behind rabbit zonkers.
Anyway.....
