Quill bodies

[Roofin' Trouter]

What are your favorite materials for tying quill body flies? Natural, synthetic,tips ,and tricks input and discussion on such is appreciated.

 

[Sylvaneous]

I've taken a shine to spandex, Span-flex or whatever it's being called. It does a lot of what actual quill will do. Not as shiny, but way easier and it doesn't inherently sink. And its translucent. I don't know why it isn't a more popular material.

 

[KeviR]

I've taken a shine to spandex, Span-flex or whatever it's being called. It does a lot of what actual quill will do. Not as shiny, but way easier and it doesn't inherently sink. And its translucent. I don't know why it isn't a more popular material.

Are you referring to the legging material? I never thought of using that as a body wrap.

 

[Drifly]

Polish quills, they offer great colors and good segmentation. To make them last longer than one fish though the need to be covered in a thin layer of UV or wound over a thin layer of superglue.

 

[falcon]

I have been using peccary for some dry fly patterns. It segments nicely and has a taper unlike biots. They take color with a marker. I was given some peccary dyed brown that shows reddish highlights. Makes nice Hendrickson. Iso and spinner bodies. A light touch is required when wrapping or they may break or split. I reinforce with Sally's.

 

[nfrechet]

stripped peacock quills

 

[silverfox]

Magic Quills are my preferred material these days. When Gaga Flies first came up with them, I ordered a lot of them directly from him and still have a good supply of them.

I've been tying a lot of blue duns, and the magic quills make it easy to add that little mahogany spot at the end of the abdomen (probably not terribly important). Great for baetis nymph abdomens too.

 

[baileyoconnell]

I bought some Semperfli clear quills and plan to use a Coptic marker. Anyone ever use Semperfli quills?

 

[silverfox]

I bought some Semperfli clear quills and plan to use a Coptic marker. Anyone ever use Semperfli quills?

They're the same thing as the magic quills by gaga flies (who "invented" them), but they're twice the price. With the clear synthetic quills (magic quills or semperfli) you can adjust the color w/ the thread color used underneath or wrap floss over the thread base with gaps to get a variegated color.

Super easy. No coloring is required. I think it looks better than colored quills because the synthetic quill layer is transparent, so you get this cool effect where the color is projected through the clear layer.

I like these synthetic quills because they're so thin compared to real quill. You can make a very thin body if you lay down just enough thread to cover the hook. You don't have to worry about the quill breaking or having to pre-soak them etc.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Clear Quills: Cool!

I like how this guy uses markers on the thread to get the projected effect silverfox mentioned.

 

[nfrechet]

heres a quill trick

 

[Steeltrap]

Great video! But when he spoke in "CM's" I got lost. 10cm = what....12" ??