Feather streamers

[Ray Kunz]

I realize that feather streamers are not as popular as they used to be. One of the things that have slowed me up are the lack of appropriate wing feathers. I'm sure others have also noticed this but only recently have I found that the Whiting "American" rooster cape feathers are nicely shaped, reasonably webbed and have somewhat stiffer quills making them ideal for me. They are somewhat "behind the times" in terms of the genetic engineeriing of the long, narrow dry fly feathers we are used to these days. Streamer feathers have gone the way of "spade hackles". Other comments are welcome. Thanks.

[texfly]

The strung hackle is a cheap option but I agree the Whiting American rooster capes are far better. With Whiting you get quality and with a cape you can pick matching feathers from the left and right sides to get a nice natrual matching curve of the feathers. Its kind of like matching up slip quills. It does give the fly a much better look. Some of the tiers that have been at it a number of years will say we are lucky because we have easy access to feather quality that is better than it has ever been. Just my two cents

[Buddy Sanders]

Ray,

I love streamers. I find feathers for them in all kinds of stuuf...strung hackles (you usually have to unstring them and sort them, but about half are usually excellent), 'bass necks' or 'streamer necks' (which I used to see all the time, less so now), had usable feathers on them, indian rooster necks for smaller flies (I've even found a couple of genuine CREE in these over the years), and, of course, the older generations of hackle necks, like the Whiting 'American', the older Herbert Minor (sp?), etc..

We cerrtainly have better quality and availability of feathers, but the variety of types seems to have lessened over the years. Most R&D has gone into dry fly hackle I guess.

Buddy

[Fly Goddess]

Agree with Buddy.

[Ray Kunz]

Here, I'm going to hijack my own thread.
Is there any free video clip available that would show the easiest way to overcome the greatest frustration in tying feather streamers? That is, the final attachment of the feathers to assure that they both, or all, will be flat, together and vertical. How many times have I tied them on with a few wraps only to have to unwrap them and try again? I've tied them on top of the hook, on the sides of the hook and even one a a time. None of these variations seems to be optimum.

[AlanB]

I don't know of a video, but may be able to help.

Get some fine nose pliers. The ones jewelers use, with no teeth on the faces. Hold the feathers together and pinch at the tie in point to flatten the stems. Be gentle, it doesn't take much pressure. You only need about 1/8" (3mm) of flattened stem to tie in by. This is a technique that the classic salmon fly guys use when tying in whole GP tippet wings.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
A.

[tedshuck]

I don't know of a video, but may be able to help.

Get some fine nose pliers. The ones jewelers use, with no teeth on the faces. Hold the feathers together and pinch at the tie in point to flatten the stems. Be gentle, it doesn't take much pressure. You only need about 1/8" (3mm) of flattened stem to tie in by. This is a technique that the classic salmon fly guys use when tying in whole GP tippet wings.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
A.

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou!!!
I have always found it frustrating to tie in feathers this way, and I really think this tip will save me a lot of headaches in the future!
Thanks again,
Ted

[texfly]

Another vote here for the smooth pliers. You can really fine tune the angle just right before mounting on the hook. Very cool trick.

[AlanB]

You're welcome Ted. Between us all here we could probably cover most flies. Let us know how you get on with it.
Cheers,
A.