Porcupine fur/quills

[Steve Ibershof]

Does anyone know of a pattern that uses porcupine quills and/or fur?

[rainbowchaser]

Check the fly of the week archives for an extended body mayfly using quills. One professional tier here in West Michigan always used the guard hairs for tails in his larger (12+) mayflies also.

[Bamboozle]

50+ years ago, Vince Marinaro was using the quills for extended bodied Green Drake spinners or Coffin Flies.

While I'm not one to take exception with the great master, I personally feel the hardness of the quill might cause fish to quickly expel the fly if given the opportunity. I have to believe Vince would have chosen something else in his day, if he had all of the choices we do now.

[Normand]

heres the dette coffin fly

http://www.classictrout.com/dryflies...yquillbody.php

go to BING or GOOGLE and type in "porcupine quill fly patterns" and search the results. there are some patterns. you could also click on "images" and some photos should be available.

[kengore]

Porcupine guard hairs are sold commercially as a substitute for stripped feather quills, used for quill body mayfly patterns.
http://www.mlwebb.com/fly-tying/imag...medal-1214.jpg

The hollow quills can be used for extended mayfly bodies.
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...061906fotw.php

Used as stonefly legs and tails on super realistic patterns.
http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/fl...stic_stone.htm

[Gandolf]

Hi Steve,

I have used the guard hair for the body of mosquitoes. The porcupine that I found had both dark and light guard hairs, and I ended up keeping quite a bit of guard hair. The guard hair is very tough and strong, it is much tougher than moose mane.

Regards,

Gandolf

[Steve Ibershof]

Thanks to those who have replied to my posting.

[onemorecast]

Steve, they make nice little emerger bodies, too. I've been known to pillage porcupine corpses in the Catskills. In the spring, there's a dead one on every road. This quill is a guard hair flattened with my thumbnail. Now they are slippery little buggers, so you might want to use a little glue when tying these in and off.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

Just a quick note on the quills, once they are cleaned they take dyes very nicely. Anyone who has seen old Native American quill decoration can attest to that.

When damp, the quills flatten and wrap beautifully, as can be seen in onemorecasts fine example.