Wing tricks!

[Mike-Connor]

OK, as promised, some wing tricks!

These "tricks" also have the advantage of using many feathers from the wings and body of various birds which would otherwise be wasted. But of course you can use various hackle and other feathers as well.

The first "trick" is for caddis wings. Select a feather, ( when making these I usually select at least a dozen similar feathers and make them up at the same time), the feather you select should of course reflect the colouration of the insect you are trying to imitate! But even here there are tricks, if you use white or light coloured feathers, you can dye them with a magic marker to match the colour you want, before you prepare them.

So, select a body feather from whatever bird you decide to use, I have used a partridge body feather here;

Bild1Partbod

Now strip the fluff from the feather, so that is looks like this;

Bild2Partbod

Now take your UHU glue, ( or a similar clear quick drying flexible waterproof glue. DON'T USE SUPERGLUE$!!! They will stick your fingers together!!), and place a small drop on your forefinger;

( The right type of glue, when placed on your forefinger and rubbed between finger and thumb, will form little flexible balls as it dries. It is also easily removed from your fingers just by rubbing. There are various brands that will work, http://www.bostik.co.uk/diy/product/17 ).

Bild3Partbod

Now take the feather and pull it slowly and evenly between your forefinger and thumb. This forces the glue into the fibres and makes the feather one solid but still transparent and flexible piece of the shape desired. Pulling gently keeps the feather wider, pulling hard makes it narrower. Only pull it through once! Once the glue even starts to dry you can't pull it properly any more and the wing will be ruined:

Bild4PartBod

The result should look like this;

Bild5PartBod

With a little practice you can control the feather shape exactly. This only takes a few seconds to dry. When making these I have a piece of double sided tape on a piece of card, and I stick the feather stems to this while I am making the other wings;

Bild6PartBod

So, when the wings are dry, simply fold them in half!

Bild7PartBod

Now using your scissors cut the end of the wing as shown;

Bild8PartBod

Voila! A very nearly perfect caddis wing, which is very durable, light, transparent like the real thing, and completely waterproof! I have had a few dozen fish on flies dressed with such wings without any apparent major damage to the fly. These also float extremely well.

So, on to trick number two!

This is basically the same thing, but you can use even more of the "useless" feathers from bird wings etc. for it.

Select a feather, again I have chosen a partridge wing feather here, but of course you can use any suitable feather, and colour it as described above if desired;

Bild9partbod

Now carefully strip one entire side of the feather. Which side you choose depends on the final wing shape you want;

Bild10partbod

Now do exactly as described with the UHU glue for the caddis wings above. You should now have something like this;

Bilo11partbod

you can make lots of different shapes using various feathers and control. This one is for spinner wings:



If you wish you can also now trim these feathers even more with scissors, or even stamp them out with a cutter, or use a burner to give them even more perfect shapes.

You can use lots of different feathers for this, many of which would otherwise be thrown away as "useless" for fly-dressing.

With a little thought and experimentation, you can match any wing for any fly more or less perfectly in form and colour.

Although you can use these wings on wet flies of course, they are only really suitable for dry flies.

Here are a few flies dressed with these wings to give you an idea of what is possible. Of course you can also make such flies look very realistic indeed if you wish.

Here is a range of mayflies;

Bild12 GWflies.

Here are some caddis flies;


( This is just a "quick and dirty" scan on my flatbed scanner, which has deformed some of the flies, when I have more time I will take proper photos).

Of course you can also use this technique for making thorax covers, wing buds, scud backs, etc etc Here are a couple of other flies made using this technique;

GWFlies13

I have been using this technique since I discovered it about twenty five years ago. I have not seen anybody else using it up to now, but I recently saw a Jungle Cock substitute being made in a similar way. Most other techniques like this rely on sticking the feather to something like netting, or scotch tape etc. but this makes heavy clumsy wings. This technique only uses the feather itself and a tiny amount of glue. The glue bonds the feather fibres perfectly, makes them extremely tough, and also waterproofs them.

I use the same trick for repairing split Jungle Cock nails.

Hope you enjoy dressing a few flies using this method, and catch plenty of fish on them!

Regards and tight lines!

Mike Connor