Ruffed Grouse & Silk Dubbing

[Donald Nicolson]

I have just acquired a ruffed Grouse skin, it has some very interesting feathers. They are not native to the UK, has anyone got any special patterns?
I have also some of Kreinik's silk dubbing, has anyone used it?

[hap]

Donald
I have skins from most of our grouse on hand and do lots of soft hackles without much concern for using exactly the "correct" grouse for each pattern. Our willow ptarmigan for example is the same bird (Lagopus lagopus) as your red grouse, though colored a bit grayer. It makes fully functional soft hackles just like yours do on your side of the pond.

I hate to admit my compulsion to collect full skins, but I have many dozens of different birds as prepared skins for tying, including our native grouses, quail, partridges, and a lot more. In most cases I have roosters and hens...

Ruffed grouse have two color phases, red and gray... for your purposes the gray would be the most different from your grouse. Both make very fine flies, though the stems are heavy and the sizes run a little large...
art

[Gandolf]

Hi Donald,

Like Art above, I have used Ruffed Grouse for different soft hackles. Also like Art mentions above, I believe that the stems are a bit much. Because of the stems, I prefer partridge, and the partridge feathers are things of beauty on a soft hackle. After you overcome the stem problem, the grouse does tie a nice fly too.

The tail feathers are split, the barbules trimmed fairly short, the "pith" removed, the result softened in water, and then used for the "Bread Crust" pattern, which is an old and traditional cased caddis pattern. If you go to Charlie Cravens site, there is a tutorial for that particular pattern.

There is a substitute pattern for the "Bread Crust", if you don't have the grouse tail feathers which is listed in "The American Fly Tying Manual by Dave Hughes, but the one Charlie lists is the original, and I much prefer it.

Regards.

Gandolf

[hap]

Gandolf
Soaking the feathers and then peeling the barbs off with a strip of stem is easy, quick, and conserves hackle as you can easily tie two flies with each. Also, using oversize hackle, wrapping it at the thorax, tying it forward, wrapping the thorax over the stem, and then pulling the hackle back over the fly works very well with grouse, too.
art

[kelkay]

I love grouse feathers. I don't tie tiny flies, so the larger stems don't bother me.

[Gandolf]

Hi Hap,

I have also done the hackle facing the front, and then wrapping back trick, and agree that it does work. However, I have not tried the wrap the stem, and then wrap the thorax over the stem trick, but it sounds better than what I have done to overcome the thick stem problem. Typically I have stripped off the barbs and tie just them in facing to the front, and then wrapping back with thread.


I have not tried the strip off the barbs trick, but is sounds feasible, and I can certainly see how it does conserve hackle.

Regards,

Gandolf