bronze peacock herl

[lee sieckmann]

About a month ago I put a package of strung peacock herl and an eyed feather on the dash of my truck for it to turn bronze. I figured the Arizona sun would make short work of it, but it isn't happening. Am I too impatient?

In observing the peacock for a month in many different lights, I've seen some color shifts that I was not expecting. In addition to the common iridescent blue and green, I have seen it to be iridescent yellow/charteuse. When back lit, and without a metallic sheen, it appears a dark olive rather than black as I had assumed it to be.

Peacock is one of my favorite materials for trout flies. The bronze peacock I've used in the past has been through random chance and probably mixed in with regular colored herls. I've never consciencely noticed a difference in the effectiveness of these flies tied with these bronze herls.

I was wondering what others experience is with bronze peacock?

[Hans Weilenmann]

Lee,

My experience is that bronze peacock turns just as black as green peacock once past the top couple inches of water

The color we observe on peacock herl is the result of refracted light. The base color of the material is a very dark brown, or, to all intents and purposes, black.

Cheers,
Hans W


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[wsbailey]

Many of the older fly tying books, such as Halford's 1886 "Floating Flies", recommend dyeing peacock eye feathers with magenta dye to get bronze peacock. It apparently has always been rare. I have never been able to find an answer to why some is bronze. Maybe it's genetic. Bill

[This message has been edited by wsbailey (edited 24 February 2006).]

[nick0danger]

Yea just before Christmas i hung some in my windows no change, at all. i will try and find a dye to try i guess.

[Ed Gallop]

You likely have UV protection on your glass windows. It will not work unless it gets exposure to the UV rays. Most windows, homes and cars, are UV treated and you probably don't know it. Ed.

[wsbailey]

I left about a dozen peacock tail feathers outside in the sun for most of a summer and none of them turned bronze. Bill

[nick0danger]

My windows are far to old to be UV protected. Will try it outside though.

[Ed Gallop]

There is a species of peacock that genetically produces bronzed herl but I don't recall the name.

As for UV... It doesn't bronze as well as the natural stuff but it does bronze in sunlight. It takes about 6 to 8 weeks, depending or intensity. Seattle area would take longer than Death Valley.

Another consideration is the light used to view the bronzed herl. It looks different under true color (daylight) than in tungsten or regular household lights. Also different under florescent light. Under some lights you can hardly tell the difference between bronzed and green, under other it shows well, in some cases you have to angle the light to see the bronze.

Under water it makes no difference between green and bronzed, at least as far as I can tell (maybe fish can though). Wet peacock herl is not the same color as it is when dry. Under water it looks different than when wet out of the water (looks black when fibers are sticking together) and different underwater on a sunny day than a cloudy day. You can get a glass of water and check it out for yourself.

There is something in peacock herl that triggers fish, however, bronzed herl is for my personal attraction, not the fish's.

I emailed an offer to send a small sample of bronzed herl to those that tried in vain to bronze it themselves. But I can't email "nick0danger" (email is not available). If you email me your address I will gladly send a small sample to tie some flies with.

Just some more thoughts to play with. Ed.

[This message has been edited by Ed Gallop (edited 25 February 2006).]

[nick0danger]

Ed you have mail

Looking forward to try the Bronze Peacock herl.

Thanks

[lee sieckmann]

Thanks Ed. You are right that something is going on with peacock herl in its fish attracting capabilities. I don't know if anyone actually knows what it is, but there seems more to it than what is obvious.

In his book "How Fish Work", Tom Sholseth, DVM, said that fish can see polarized light. He had conducted experiements with polarized light or had access to such studies. I don't recall all the details, but he wrote that the most polarized light enters the water when it strikes the surface at 30 degrees or roughly dawn and sunset. Additionally, peacock was one substance that shown up well under polarized light while others did not. There were pictures illustrating this in the book. When I read this I thought well maybe this is one of the reasons peacock is such a popular fly tying material.

I've tried a couple of different brands of peacock dubbing blends made from man made materials. They look good but have not measured up to the real thing in my experience.