Hi,

Thought I would post these patterns showing 5 different New Zealand Pukeko Flies. The Pukeko, or "Road Chicken" as I call it due to it's habit of ... sleeping ... on the side of the road, is a native swamp bird. It has blue and black feathers, similar in shape to partridge. The fibers are very soft. Pukeko flies are primarily used as night time flies, and are usually tied quite large (size 4 hooks type thing). I've down sized these to size 10 and I think they should work really well.

The two most popular are the Scotch Poacher and Craig's Nighttime.
Scotch Poacher


Craig's Night time


The next 3 complete the set as listed in the book I have on New Zealand flies. These are :
The Black Phantom


Fruit Salad (the black/yellow/red body segments can be in any order)


And the Taihape Tickler (pronouced Tie-Happy, which is a Maori Place name)


The pukeko feather is the one that forms the "cape" (they sort of look like little super heros). You need to layer 2 or 3 of them or it's too thin. Pukeko feathers can only be purchased from one shop that I know of (O'Keefe's in Rotorua), and I've been told they are the only shop with a licence to sell. However, Pukeko can be shot during duck season, or gathered from the road while ... uh ... sleeping. Pick one that's just fallen asleep!

Anyway, one could use partridge feather, or mallard breast feathers, pheasant, etc and experiment with this style. When tying in the wing, strip the feather of the fluff, tie in the bare stem with a few loose wraps, then pull the feather forward. This traps in the fibers to form a sort of "super hero cape" type shape rather than a big wide dinner plate on top.


- Jeff