Wild Duck CDC

[hap]

Today was opening day here and my son and I shot quite a few birds. We have been doing this for a lot of years and I have this problem with throwing away perfectly good materials... I saved the CDC from about a dozen birds... we had 16 total to clean... I started to put the zip-lock sandwich bag in with all the others from however many years it has been... and realized I need help!

So the first one that claims the baggie gets it... PM or post here... first date stamp gets it either way.
The CDC is a fairly uniform DARK dun... All of it is dark colored. The species in the bag include shoveler, widgeon, pintail, scaup, goldeneye, and gadwall. These are mostly young birds and not fully mature.

What you will not get is prime CDC as long as your arm... There may be a few non-CDC feathers in the bag... There may be a bloody feather or two (I think I got most of those out) and it will not be light enough to color (unless it is bleached) any other way. A few birds did have quite nice stuff so there is some better "stuff" in the bag. Especially for slightly smaller stuff <12 there will be hundreds of flies worth of CDC.

I put a little Borax in the bag to ensure the CDC dries and nothing bad grows in it. It should shake out easily and will "polish" the CDC a bit.

Would be tickled if a youngster got the bag... but first dibs is the rule, even if you are a geezer!

All I ask is that you pass a little good will down the line; help another learn to tie, pass on some materials you have in excess, or help a little old lady across the street.
art

[lastchance]

Just wanted to say, " good for you, Hap." I hope a young guy gets them.

[quivira kid]

I'm just jealous you guys get to get into the ducks this early! A dozen ducks worth of CDC should have filled up a sandwich size zip lock nicely.... definitely worth snatching up if you tie with CDC!

[narcodog]

CDC is one of the most over looked material, IMO. I just started tying with it three years ago and now it has become one of my fav's along with Aust possum.

[Cliff955]

What Lastchance said! Cliff

[zerosleep]

I will take a bag if still available. Thank you

[hap]

I'm just jealous you guys get to get into the ducks this early! A dozen ducks worth of CDC should have filled up a sandwich size zip lock nicely.... definitely worth snatching up if you tie with CDC!

QK
I would trade all the early stuff for the opportunity to shoot fully colored-up birds... We do get lots of sea ducks and get them in great plumage, especially harlequins. And that starts to make up for the lack of woodies and gadwalls in full dress.

Harlequins have some of the best soft hackles imaginable in a true blue dun, BTW...
art

[hap]

Forgot to mention... This early AM we stopped on the hill overlooking the lake we were going to hunt and looked it over carefully with binoculars. We wanted to know where the birds were and to see if anyone else was hunting the lake. Because it is a big stop-over spot for the really big swans we like to know how many are there and where they are.

My son immediately said there was a huge black bear in the inlet stream... Turned out it had a very big hump and a brown hide... Just a brown bear. Then her two-year-old cub came out and they fished briefly in the salmon-filled stream.

Not an ordinary way to start a duck hunt by most standards I suppose and one more good reason to stop and look things over.
art

[quivira kid]

Gadwall flank is one of my absolute favorite tying materials... I hoard as much as possible! Many crappie and bluegills have been caught because of it mixed with a few strands of copper Krystal flash and some peacock herl......