Dark turkey fibers

[Jake41]

Has anyone used the dark turkey tail fibers for nymph bodies. They seem to be more sturdy than pheasant tail fibers. Are there any other uses for them besides wing cases for nymphs?

 

[BrookieChaser]

I use the mottled barbs off a turkey's tail feather for the nymphal shuck of a half and half emerger.

 

[Dcap240]

You can wrap the fibers just like pheasant tail. Coat them in a flexible fixative and you can use them for down wing caddis and stoneflies. A lot of hopper patterns use them like letort hopper and Dave's hopper. Muddler minnows. You can take a single fiber and use it for ribbing. I'm sure you could even use them for dry and wet fly wings if you have a pair.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

The abdomen and wingcase on my favorite sulphur nymph pattern is turkey tail fibers....

 

[nfrechet]

replace the pheasant tail fibers with turkey tail fibers for a different look

wingcases

bodies

legs

etc

same thing can be done with goose and duck quill fibers. and from any other bird for that matter.

be creative. experiment

 

[lv2nymph]

Really nice looking tie HA. Agreed with Nf.

 

[McSneek]

I've used them instead of pheasant tail fibers. They look nice but are even less durable than the PT fibers IMO. Make sure you rib with something. HA's sulphur is really nice example. Black ribbing of some type.

 

[GenCon]

I do use wild turkey for many flies. Using it for wing cases and also wrappint it on. HA that's a really great sulpher nymph. Can I ask what the thorax is?

GenCon

 

[Heritage-Angler]

GenCon wrote:
Can I ask what the thorax is?

50% ginger rabbit, 20% red fox squirrel, 20% orange rabbit, 10% white antron dubbing - blended in a coffee grinder.

 

[mike_richardson]

Be sure not to use as many fibers IMO they get bullky pretty quick. They do make pretty nice Caddis patterns as well and because of their length can allow you to make larger flies with them.

 

[Jake41]

H A, really nice pattern. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

 

[turkey]

Heritage-Angler wrote:

GenCon wrote:
Can I ask what the thorax is?

50% ginger rabbit, 20% red fox squirrel, 20% orange rabbit, 10% white antron dubbing - blended in a coffee grinder.

That looks great HA.

 

[GenCon]

HA, thank you. I will try this. Looks like a fishy pattern.

GenCon

 

[Festus]

Great looking Sulpher Nymph HA.

To answer the OPs question, I use dark turkey for a lot of things. I've found that the outside two tail feathers on a full tail have biots? that are pretty wide. I dye and use these biots? to make a deadly compara spinner pattern to imitate several different mayflies. They work great.