Fly Tying, 1961.

[gfen]

Complete jungle cock neck, $5.




Complete blue chatterer, $0.77. I don't know what the going rate is NOW, but the rough estimate I just pulled from a full dress salmon fly board was...$3500+.




Condor quills. $2.25.

And yet, oddly enough, lemon wood duck was still expensive at $0.09 per feather.

More: http://overmywaders.com/index.php?hertersfeathers

 

[flytyingfred]

I am gonna order me a condor quill. I think I am gonna splurge and order a whole one but I will have to save for a few weeks as they are a bit pricey at 2.25 each. Dont you wish you could build a time machine?

 

[gfen]

I'd load a freezer with blue chatterer skins and retire a millionare tomorrow.

 

[whheff]

Thanks for sharing this. I liked the old magazine that you poster a while back too.
I had to Google what a European Curlew was. It is a sandpiper.

What pattern uses this feather?

 

[gfen]

I really apprechiate this sort of thing, and wish I'd have the paitence to develop the neccessary skills to tie and use classic wet flies.

Instead, I end up with a soft hackle spider dropper under a dry, and tell myself its "good enough."

And I can't marry wings.

 

[flytyingfred]

gfen I have not been tying for very long and always had trouble making a soft hackle fly look good. I am getting a little more experienced especailly with materials and I am finding out that you have to know which material to buy. I was using little bags of partridge and the flies came out crappy. I bought a whole partridge and it makes a world of difference. It also applied to hackle and other things I bought when I first started. Sandfly has helped me a lot with materials and especially feathers.

 

[whheff]

gfen wrote:
I really apprechiate this sort of thing, and wish I'd have the paitence to develop the neccessary skills to tie and use classic wet flies.

And I can't marry wings.

I like the old style wet flies too. There is something in the art of tying them that makes them beautiful to look at, like old style salmon flies.

Here is a link you might enjoy. If you can't tie them, you can still appreciate their beauty.

http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/bergman/

 

[gfen]

I've got that link saved, I even bought a copy of Trout not for the knowledge, but strictly the fly plates.

I've tried a few, usually I just do rolled mallard wings.

Fred, in addition to the partridge, add a starling skin to your collection.. Alot of the patterns do well with a sparse hackle of it, as its nice and irridescent, plus the hackles tend to be short so its great for little flies.

I've had alot of luck with a black floss body, two turns of starling, and a green tinsel tag. I'll also sometimes do a little collar of white ice dub behind the hackle.

 

[beadhead2]

Check out Don Bastian's web site ,he has just finished tying every wet fly in Ray Bergmans book Trout
http://donbastianwetflies.wordpress.com/

 

[Tups]

I noticed that the Herters Grouse Tails at 23 cents per clump are described as Scotch Grouse feathers, but the photo depicts Ruffed Grouse feathers. Is this a case of false advertising?

Ruffed Grouse tail fibers make great wet fly wings, but they look very different from the black grouse of Scotland.

 

[Tups]

See attached pic for an example of a curlew feather used as a hackle. This is not my fly, rather I found it at www.flymphforum.com .

 

[Tups]

Red Grouse skin also from flymphforum.

 

[whheff]

Tups
Very nice fly, thanks.
I will have to check out that web site too.

 

[Tups]

You are welcome, but I must warn you about the flymphforum site. If you are like me, you will become addicted to North Country flies, aka soft-hackles, aka spiders, aka wingless wets. The site has an overwhelming amount of useful information about the North Country fishing tradition and its flies.

I should also clarify that Scotch grouse, English grouse, red grouse, & black grouse are differnet names for the same bird. The young ones are referred to as red grouse and the old males, which darken as they age, are known as black grouse.

 

[shakey]

i think it is a good idea to get your hands on as many types of game bird and hen skins as you can.grouse,woodcock,quail,pheasant,partridge,etc.

i find the color variations are usually better on wild birds than the stuff fly shops sell.

 

[Tups]

I agree with Shakey on this matter of wild birds. I also note that the European woodcock and English Grouse skins that you buy in the fly shops (if you can find them) are from wild birds shot in Europe. Wild ruffed grouse and American woodcock can be hunted in PA, but sadly the bobwhite is no longer found in a wild state in this state. However, you may shoot as many wild starlings as you wish in PA. I use a lot of starling feathers in my wet flies - a very useful bird from the flytyers perspective. The Evening Rise Fly Shop in Lancaster PA, especially in winter/spring, carries many of the game bird skins needed for soft-hackles. These are mostly high-quality Veniard's products.

 

[Tups]

From what I can find, only one fly pattern uses a curlew feather as hackle. Oddly enough it is knwn as "the curlew fly" and is flypattern #50 in T.E. Pritt's "North Country Flies" (1886). Pritt's patterns and illustrations were reproduced in Sylvester Nemes' "The Soft-Hackle Fly Addict"

 

[sandfly]

most of the feathers i have are "wild" not from suppliers.

 

[osprey]

What do you do for bugs sandfly? Moth crystals and mothballs? or is there sumpin else?

 

[osprey]

gFen...........sorry i didn't mean to hijack this i got my very first herters order from my dad as a christmas present , vise , bobbin , tools , hooks , feathers and i remember he let me spend $21.00 and we sat and filled out the order and there it was under the tree , i still have some of the original hook boxes and a few other things but i wish i'd have kept a catalog , they were so cool.