Jgoding,

A duck quill winged dry will not last 30 fish... the quill wing will shred after about 5 fish probably, this is the nature of the material.
Duck quill wings such as those in No Hackle Dun are very durable because you do not lose feather fibers even when they are chewed apart. You can still catch fish on and on and on.

Just because duck quill wings are shredded does not mean that they are not durable. Shredded wings may not look aesthetically pleasing to you, but they do not lose their effectiveness. Mike Lawson once said he caught 35 trout on a No Hackle PMD.

When you tie hair wing patterns, individual hair fibers in their wings are already apart from each other, right?

So, shredded duck quill wings do not have any durability problem in and of themselves.



[This message has been edited by adso4 (edited 20 March 2006).]