Some New Materials

Hi,

I picked up some new materials yesterday. One was a starling skin to replace my old one that was stolen about 2 years ago. For something that would be easy enough to replentish if I lived in the countryside, when you're in the city it's another story. I've tied up some spiders and I must say, I really like having starling for soft hackles again. What a great feather!

Anyway, the other new material I picked up is an English Magpie skin. This is a great bird for wings! Overall the bird looks black, like a crow, with some white flashes - the quills have black and white patches so they should make interesting wings. However, what caught my eye was that there are feathers with all sorts of subtle sheen to them. The tail has some great green tinge to it, and parts of the wings have a nice blue and purples. The blue feathers could be used for wings on Butchers, and I've tied up something similar using the green tinged feathers. Unfortunately, the colour just doesn't show up in these photos. It's similar to how starling feathers have that shine to them as well.

Anyway, here's one fly I put together using the green tail feathers. I call it a "Green Maggie May". Tail is mallard dyed woodduck, body primrose with flat silver rib, throat is red golden pheasant fibres, and the wing is from the magpie tail:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...nMaggieMay.jpg

This was my variation on the Bloody Butcher, just used orange instead of red for the tail and throat, and used the green magpie tail instead of blue:

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...ffsButcher.jpg

While at the shop, Peter (one of the owners) showed me a magazine (forget which title) which had a article on "classic wet flies". I liked the look of the "Dr. Burke", so tied a couple up when I got home. And, of course, found it listed here in the Just Old Flies section too!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g1...h_Dr_Burke.jpg

Anyway, just wanted to share the find! We have magpie's here in New Zealand, but I'm not sure if they have the same coloured feathers on them?

- Jeff

You are a craftsman.

Jeff,

Wonderful flies. You have wings down to an art form. Again very nice!

Jeff,

I've been thinking about adding a magpie to my collection of tying "stuff". Like you, I'm not sure if the local magpies have the same coloration as the UK birds. Very nice flies, Jeff. You've got the winging down pat haven't you.

Thanks everyone! I've been practicing wings a lot lately. Last year I was full on into spider mode, this year, I'm building up my collection of winged wets. I've found that I'm getting better at choosing good slips for the wings, which makes a big difference.

REE, if you can get a Magpie with the colours on it, I highly recommend it. This is the first one I've ever had and I just picked it up on a whim. Although I've only tied a few flies off of one tail feather so far, I can already see a large variety of possibilities.

- Jeff

Nice flies.

Who on earth steals starling pelts? I have starlings nesting in the eaves of my house. They are fair game up here as they are not classified as a song bird.

Hi GBF,

My whole fly tying kit was stolen from the car a few years back, and the starling was in that. Given how hard it was to replace, I think I had purchased the last starling pelt in all of NZ! My local fly shop had to special order in half a dozen, and it took them quite a while to source a supply and get them cleared through quarenteen.

- Jeff

Jeff - what a neat series of flies, the wings are so good.

check PM.

Jeanne