What have you people done to me? Some of you have read my posts about my wife getting me a vise and tools for Christmas, and my progression(or should I say obsession)into fly tying.
Last night, I realized how bad it is. I have a nice park near my house in Mississippi with a little lake and a walking trail around it. Last night I decided to go for a little exercise. The trails wind back and forth, with the lake in the middle. The lake has all kinds of ducks and geese that the kids love to feed during the day. Well at night, turns out they sleep, and they sleep right next to the trail. I walked by sleeping geese, sleeping ducks, and other water fowl in various stages of rest. As I walked, I found myself not looking at birds, but at saddle hackle that I desperately need. I felt like I was at bass pro picking out the colors I want. I saw white, black, grizzled and brown, all in abundance and available for the taking. I saw one of those big ugly ducks that don’t exist in nature, only in parks, sleeping on the trail. The walkers in front of me quietly stepped around it, I began to slow. I reached down and poked the duck on the back…the duck continued to sleep. I returned to my walk, my mind buzzing with the possibilitites around me. I left the birds feathers intact, but for how long? If only my vise had come with a warning: “caution, users might feel the urge to pluck a duck”
You wouldn’t be the first person to use feathers from the wild. Just read up on how to debug them before mixing some in with your store-bought feathers.
Welcome to the fly tyers world!!! Resist the urge to pluck the duck, could get y’all in trouble and not just with teh ducks. When I read your post I had a cartoon vision of you looking at the duck and seeing hackle, capes and saddles. We do look at things differently than others do, got to admit it is fun. Take care and be careful, John.
The first FAOL fly swap I was in was a pet swap, and as luck would have it a few days before it was posted my wife came home with three 6 week old kittens. One had the prettiest orange fur. Needless to say I am still getting dirty looks from her over the 3 bald spots that kitten had.
Most definitely! Some folks use a microwave; I store them in a sealed Rubbermade shoebox with moth crystals for a few days.
As the birds start to molt, you’ll find plenty of feathers to gather; those Canada goose primaries are a great source for light grey biots that make a real nice Adams variation body.
If I recall correctly, the gentleman that writes the fly tying column for our fly fishing club’s monthly newsletter had an article a while back in which he described an experiment with microwaving bugs.
The short version is the bugs had so little moisture that the microwave didn’t seem to do anything meaningful to them.
The moth crystals are a much better approach (though some are just repellants, you want the kind that kill the critters).
LOL! Wait til you start seeing all the roadkills! HeHe. Got to be very careful with the bugs and should be cleaned throughly and put into zip lock bags.
