Getting the most from Peacock herl

[mike_richardson]

I tie a ridiculous amount of pheasant tails. I also tie a lot of basic caddis larva patterns. One thing I found is that if I pick up the 7" strung herl over the 5" herl I can get double the amount of flies out of them, for not a big difference in price of material. I will tie a bunch of pheasant tails in a run, then save the left over pieces of peacock for my caddis larva. Now some of them end up pretty rough but typically I can pile up the left overs in a bag and use those for my caddis larvas.

I am always trying to find ways to reduce waste and figured some of you may like this little tip. I tied up 24 bhpt last night, and will probably do about a hundred over the weekend. Next week I will start hammering out some of those caddis larva, and not have to worry about using the best section of my herl.

Just thought I would share this tip with you guys.

Thanks for the read.

 

[NewSal]

mike_richardson wrote:
I tie a ridiculous amount of pheasant tails. I also tie a lot of basic caddis larva patterns. One thing I found is that if I pick up the 7" strung herl over the 5" herl I can get double the amount of flies out of them, for not a big difference in price of material. I will tie a bunch of pheasant tails in a run, then save the left over pieces of peacock for my caddis larva. Now some of them end up pretty rough but typically I can pile up the left overs in a bag and use those for my caddis larvas.

I am always trying to find ways to reduce waste and figured some of you may like this little tip. I tied up 24 bhpt last night, and will probably do about a hundred over the weekend. Next week I will start hammering out some of those caddis larva, and not have to worry about using the best section of my herl.

Just thought I would share this tip with you guys.

Thanks for the read.

You weren't the only one tying pheasant tails last night!! lol

 

[mike_richardson]

tis the season brother. LOL

 

[nomad_archer]

100 bhpt's in a weekend. If I tried that it would be my weekend. I am slow but getting a bit faster.

 

[MKern]

I do the exact same thing. I keep them for caddis and midge flies too.

 

[mike_richardson]

I tie a pile of them. If you tie your patterns and not get "fly tyers ADD" like I used to you can really get in a rhythm.

I only made it to 72 though. I got ADD and switch to some caddis larva. Did 2 of them too. Then 24 hares ears last night.

Trying to stock up this year so I am not tying for 4 hours until 2 in the morning before a trip like I did last year. LOL

 

[NewSal]

mike_richardson wrote:
I tie a pile of them. If you tie your patterns and not get "fly tyers ADD" like I used to you can really get in a rhythm.

I only made it to 72 though. I got ADD and switch to some caddis larva. Did 2 of them too. Then 24 hares ears last night.

Trying to stock up this year so I am not tying for 4 hours until 2 in the morning before a trip like I did last year. LOL

Your a huge fan of lively legz huh?
Do you notice a difference fishing flies with them?

 

[mike_richardson]

3:1 catch ratio over traditional patterns for me. Ive tied them tandem in the same pattern without the legs. and then switched their location on the rig, and the lively legs still out performed the traditional.

In all water conditions and all times of year they have pretty much that ratio. I did notice that in the summer lower water times I have to switch to a black, olive, brown or copper bead, but other than that the wok for me. I wanted to see if they were worth the extra 20 seconds to tie in and they are for me anyway. Some guys may not see the same thing on the waters they fish but Ive been catching more wild fish on them than stockies now as well. But who knows anything brown, black or olive, in a size 16-14 with the right presentation will catch a fish.

I am really liking caddis pupas now and using soft hackles. I like to expand my patterns, but really I could get buy on 3-4 of those lively legz patterns, a couple caddis larva, a couple caddis pupa, and a couple peeping caddis. I really should fish more dries and streamers, but for some reason they just don't do it for me.

 

[NewSal]

mike_richardson wrote:
3:1 catch ratio over traditional patterns for me. Ive tied them tandem in the same pattern without the legs. and then switched their location on the rig, and the lively legs still out performed the traditional.

In all water conditions and all times of year they have pretty much that ratio. I did notice that in the summer lower water times I have to switch to a black, olive, brown or copper bead, but other than that the wok for me. I wanted to see if they were worth the extra 20 seconds to tie in and they are for me anyway. Some guys may not see the same thing on the waters they fish but Ive been catching more wild fish on them than stockies now as well. But who knows anything brown, black or olive, in a size 16-14 with the right presentation will catch a fish.

I am really liking caddis pupas now and using soft hackles. I like to expand my patterns, but really I could get buy on 3-4 of those lively legz patterns, a couple caddis larva, a couple caddis pupa, and a couple peeping caddis. I really should fish more dries and streamers, but for some reason they just don't do it for me.

Very interesting. Thanks for the report.

Interestingly enough, I've had similar results tying in some kind of soft hackle collar on my nymphs vs traditional patterns, mostly using small brown hen hackle at the same length of gape.
Which brings me to think that the key is having something protrude from the thorax area, whether it be lively legs, or hackle, would out perform patterns without it, its not fact, but an intriguing theory at least.

 

[mike_richardson]

Yep. Like I said in my PM but Ill share with the group.

My take on it is this:

Lively legs add to the profile but no movement

rubber legs (crazy legs, round rubber legs) add to the profile and give move ment

soft hackle- adds a lot of movement but can distort the profile.

All three work. I am getting into soft hackles more with my caddis pupa and such, but I hate tying with those crazy legs. I always cut one shorter, then screw up when trying to fix them. LOL they work well though.

 

[nomad_archer]

NewSal wrote:

Very interesting. Thanks for the report.

Interestingly enough, I've had similar results tying in some kind of soft hackle collar on my nymphs vs traditional patterns, mostly using small brown hen hackle at the same length of gape.
Which brings me to think that the key is having something protrude from the thorax area, whether it be lively legs, or hackle, would out perform patterns without it, its not fact, but an intriguing theory at least.

Interesting. I just recently started fishing soft hackle collared nymphs because I like how the look. I did catch more fish than I normally would fishing traditional nymphs. But that was with a sample size of 1. I also did well on a BHPT that used a peacock hare/slf dubbing for the throax without a wing case. I picked out the dubbing a lot and it fished just as well as the soft hackle nymph. Now I am going to have to take better notes to see if there is a difference in catch rate.

Also give starling soft hackle a try. The feathers have a cool black/green color and are small so they work well on small nymphs.

 

[Fly_guy]

I have to be honest I've grown to loathe peacock herl. Most of the stuff i get breaks so easily if you breathe on it you're done. I've switched to using a blend of ice dub with a touch of black slf most times. It's easy and cuts my time down on tying pheasant tails. I even use the blend for griffth's gnats too. One of these days I'll come by some decent herl though. Not to revive an old thread but just a thought.

 

[mike_richardson]

Are you using one, or two herls when you tie. I found that if you overlap a little more of the the feather and wrap the thread forward, then wrap back to the thorax, then forward again it helps make them durable. I double up on my pheasant tails as well.

 

[NewSal]

mike_richardson wrote:
Are you using one, or two herls when you tie. I found that if you overlap a little more of the the feather and wrap the thread forward, then wrap back to the thorax, then forward again it helps make them durable. I double up on my pheasant tails as well.

Even more durable is peacock ice dub 😉
But no seriously, good tips, I still very much prefer peacock ice dub over herls, not as "classic" but way more durable and IMO sometimes even looks better when used as thoraxs and picked out to get that buggy look

 

[McSneek]

+1 on the peacock ice dub