Good morning AC
Suggestion, coming from I tie little flies, mainly in 22’s and 20’s.
(and long ago, #32’s)
A trick,
a small pair of very sharp scissors
and
a paper or board placed behind the fly
then clip away your mistakes, I do.
Another trick.
change the backing paper and the texture till you have a very sharp contrast between the background and the fly.
Kind regards,
UB
ps, almost sorry for mucking up your fly… 
Good tips, Uncle Barry, no wuckin furries regarding the fly!
I have trouble finding starling long enough to use on anything larger than an 18, and then only about a couple of turns - do I have a bad skin, or where do you find the longer feathers on the bird?
Good morning Herefish
“where do you find the longer feathers on the bird?”
Have you a complete skin or just the skin from the back, as the back feathers are shorter.
To find another skin,
I recycle another Starling with my 22 from a tree top
Kind regards,
UB
ps, I think you can also buy Starling skins in Britain, I do not know about the United States.
Thanks, UB, I bet that is it - I want the breast feathers? I’ll have to start perusing for a whole skin.
fishey,
You may want to try Blue Ribbon Flies (www.blueribbonflies.com). Primo skin; full bird!
Betty
Thanks, Betty, that’s where I get the stuff I don’t know anything about, cause it will always be what I want. I’m still not sure I don’t have the whole skin, though, as I have quite a bit of material under the wings. How long should the feathers be that I’m looking for?
Uncle Barry, you can get that flowing, sweeping appearance by holding the fly with a pair of hemostats and hitting it with a hair dryer. I do that on a lot of the wets I tie and it works great.
Good morning PSP.
Mate, thanks for a wonderful simple idea, that will work of course.
arr, why didn’t I think of that ?
Its it strange,
the best ideas are simple and straight forward.
but
never in any book written by the ‘experts’.
Which only adds value to free Forums like that one.
Thank you both, the owners of the Forum and PSP.
Kindest regards,
UB
Finally got around to tying a Klinkhamer.
On a size 20 Partridge 15BN hook.
With a CDL tail and body.
Using a hackle tie off technique I learned last week at a tying demo.
Photographed with my new camera.
What’s that saying about old dogs and new tricks ??
John
The last two times out on the South Fork, I’ve fished size 20 2XS dries in CDC loop wing emerger, CDC standing wing dry, and hackled CDL dry fly versions to rising whitefish with good results.
If the whitefish will take them so readily, I’m quite confident that the trout will go for them also. So far, I’ve fished five different members of the CDL family and all have done well.
John
Added another member to the CDL family - a size 18 Klinkhamer with CDL tails and abdomen, a hi-viz and grizzly parachute over bwo dubbing for the thorax. Got a chance to fish it today.
Caught somewhere around 30 small stream bows plus a few brookies fishing three of these flies. The flies were not beat up, but the hackle and post were marginal for the conditions and the flies tended to lose floatation a bit quicker than I expected.
John
Finally got around to fishing the CDL and starling wet fly yesterday to some rising fishies. Took three nice bows with it quite quickly.
Also fished the CDL Klinkhamer for a while. Only got one fish on it, but he went about 18".
To date, the only fly from the original family that I haven’t fished is the CDL with hen soft hackle. All the other flies based on this concept ( eight ) have been tested and have caught trout.
John
This fly had proven itself on the smaller fish on Birch Creek a while back. Today it got a workout with some bigger fish on the Big Lost River. Best fly on the water today - accounted for around fourteen bows ranging from about 10" to 16". Got a pretty good macro shot of the fly with a fiesty 14" friend that you might enjoy.
John
P.S. Despite the discussion on another thread regarding the real deal CDL from Spain and the Whiting version, I’m going to continue refering to the Whiting feathers and the flies tied with them as the “real deal.”
John, John, John, …you are trying to rewrite history:shock:.
Duck -
See post #19 on mickporter’s Coq-de-Leon thread.
Since I didn’t know about the expensive ( Spanish ) brand of CDL before I started using the Whiting version, I claim ignorance and good faith as a defense to the charge of rewriting history, if not innocence.
Whatever, the flies work. Gonna tie some more and go catch some more trouts this weekend.
John