Partridge as legs

I'm having trouble using partridge as leg material. I've got Shane Stalcup's latest book and am trying the method he shows. After I tie in the partridge and overlay the wingcase, the legs tend to be pushed back in one clump. I can't seem to get the individual fibers to lay out as indivdual legs.

Also, the legs are extremely long. Is the length dependent upon the length of the feather fibers or is their a technique to use to adjust the length of the legs. When I've tried to trim the fibers it looks very artificial. Also what is proper proportion of leg length in general?

Thanks in advance for any and all replies. PS I love this site!

Eddie,

If the fibers are "marrying" to each other try a very quick dip in some bleach water to burn the fibers a little then rinse very well in running water. This keeps the individual fibers from matting together.

Also, once the barbs get wet, they tend to stay apart a little better.

REE

It also depends (sometimes) on what part of the partridge feather you are using. If you stroke the feather back from the tip to the stem and tie in at the tip, you usually avoid using the fluffy fibers near the butt that are hard to "unmarry". Just my 2c . . .

Joe

I do the same as Flyfishmichigan but I wet my fingers with saliva first. If you try this I think you'll find that after the feather dries in the extended position it the fibers will not marry back in again. Also, wetting the tip of the feather makes it easier for me to tie it in. (Just my $.02)
P.S. I don't think my saliva is unique.

Fast Eddie,

I'm not sure what fly you're trying to tie but you might check out the tutorials [url=http://www.troutflies.com/tutorials/:c16ab]here[/url:c16ab]. There is a tutorial for a copper john as well as a tutorial for the prince nymph. Both use partridge as a leg material and the technique that he uses works very well.

Good luck!
JeremyH

Edited to fix hyperlink

[This message has been edited by JeremyH (edited 11 December 2005).]

While I'm not exactly sure of what you're trying to do here, right off the bat it sounds like the De Feo method would be the answer you're looking for.

1. Take a partridge feather and strip the fluff from both sides.
2. Imagine the length of legs you want, and stroke those barbs and all the longer fibers toward the rear, leave the shorter fibers facing forward.
3. Trim the tip of the stem and the short barbs away. If the other barbs were facing forward, this would leave a V-notch in the tip of the feather, but they are facing to the rear so it looks kind of like an arrow head now.
4. Use a bodkin to separate the number of "legs" you want from the tip of each side of the feather and stroke them forward, the other barbs are facing to the rear and will stay that way for the rest of the method. You should now have a V sticking off the front end of the feather, two sets of legs.
5. Place the V over the hook shank so the two groups of legs are separated by shank and materials already on it. Use the pinch-wrap technique to tie them in place so they don't slip or rotate.
6. If you need to shorten the legs, you can pull on the stem of the feather, very slowly and gently.
7. Tighten your wraps and trim off the rest of the feather.
8. Set the feather aside and finish the fly.

For the next fly-
1. Clip off trimmed barbs and stem from tip of feather.
2. Repeat steps four through eight above.

As you move closer to the butt of the feather, the barbs will become longer, you will have more room to tie the legs in long, then adjust them to the right length.

This method is commonly done and demonstrated by getting only one group of legs out of a feather (find the right sized barbs and strip away everything below them), but I find that very wasteful and time consuming if you're repeating the process multiple times.

You can also use the De Feo method for making throats on streamers, just angle the shaft of the feather up over the top of the shank so the barbs point down and back and come over both sides of the shank.

[This message has been edited by OkieBass133 (edited 11 December 2005).]