So, I’m still tying Catskills out of Mike Valla’s first book. Been good fun although my “correct cocking percentage” still seems to be in the 66%-75% range. I did nail four straight male Hendrickson patterns Saturday, though - two with hackle tips, two with wood duck wings.
Yesterday, I decided to practice double slip quill wings. Towards the end of the day, I actually made a couple of nice sets using paired “duck quill wings.” I doubt these were mallard and much too dark to use in any pattern I knew.
Anyway, so I’ll probably purchase a full set of mallard wings today. My question is this: the wings I’m going to use are the big wings closest to the body, right? These are the primaries?
Also, which is the first primary? I’ve read some tiers don’t like using the no. 1 primary. Too stiff or something.
On Mallards you may be able to get some decent slips from a #1 feather, although the higher numbers are better. You’ll have to see where the ‘blood line’ is. If you have to cut into it, the wing slip you want will splinter. Hint: pluck or cut the feathers off of the skin in pairs, meaning a #1 left and a #1 right, then a #2 left and a #2 right, and so on. Tape them together at the base of the quill. Do this for all the flight feathers. That way you’ll always have matched pairs.
You don’t have to use Mallard. In fact the old recipes usually simply said ‘wild duck’. Usually light or dark depends on type of duck although I have some different shades from same type ducks. Males and females will yield different shades. Another thing to look at is the type of duck. Woodies and teals, for example, are small and have small flight feathers. Not too good for larger size flies. If you can make some connection with duck hunters and let them know you’d appreciate if they saved the wings (they need only chop them off at the knickle)m or breasted out skins. Offer some payment - flies works sometimes.
If I understand your question correctly, the answer is YES. Also, if I counted individual flight feathers on the skin from the vendor correctly, you can see 6 flight feathers on the left and 9 on the right. Not a bad price considering you don’t have to skin, wash, disinfect and dry the wings.
Well, if the skin is dried out it should be fairly easy to ‘pluck’ them out with a pair of pliers. Place the jaws of the pliers on the stem of the feather, as close as you can get to the skin (below the fibers) and pull. The other alternative is to use wire cutters and cut them away, again as close to the skin as you can. If the skin is fresh and you prefer not waiting for it to dry, then the best way is with the wire cutters. Done right you will only remove what you grab or cut, lol.
ScottP, I really like that picture, would you happen to have a picture like that showing the location of the CDC feathers so I can show a duckhunting friend of mine? He seems to have trouble figuring out where those are located. I sent him another picture showing the preen gland but it wasn’t as clear as this. Sorry to hijack the thread.
Maybe Scott has a photo to help you. but if not, explain to him(her) that, if he(she) moves finger vertically along the back, from tail towards the head, the preen gland is a bump just a little above the tail. Somewhat hard to miss if you’re looking for it. Then just pluck all the feathers from that area. CDC from hunted ducks are kind of small. You can get some from hunted geese too. Same directions. Good luck.
One thing about slip wings is that if you look at the quill feathers, you will notice how near the stem the fibres are quite thick, then there is a ridge where the fibres become thin. This is very easy to see when you cut your slip and look edge on to the slip. When you tie in the wings you do not want any of the thick bits on the fly. The Outer primaries tend to have a lot of the thick stuff and a lower proportion of the usable fibre. Also, when you get into marrying different colours, make sure you marry fibres from a left feather to a left feather, and right with right (you can tell by which side the stem tends to be since the leading edge, with the biots, is smaller than the other side). Good quality feathers are not difficult to marry, poor feathers are best not left in the same room together.
A number of years ago I was shown a technique for upright quill wings by Donald Downs. His method id shown incorrectly in the Benchside Reference. What he did was to strip the biots off the leading edge and match the feathers left and right. Then trim off the useless fibres at the tip by cutting the stem. Ending up with a pair of feathers like this.
Then cut your slips from the top by cutting the stem. By matching the feathers up you can make sure both slips are even.
Lay a bed of thread on the hook shank and offer up your slips.
Secure them to the top of the hook shank. You can use pinch and loop, but the “valley method” is better.
Lift the wings.
Then split the butts and take one to either side of the wings. Tie down to the hook shank. This will hold the wings into the upright position.
Trim out the butts at an single to give your fly’s body a nice taper. You can make some cross wraps between the wings to split them apart.
This is the best method I have found yet for these wings.
In anticipation of your next question. The Valley Method. This is how those amazing wings are put onto classic salmon flies.
Measure your wings and trade grips, so you are holding the wing sections just behind the tie in point. Grip them very tightly. Take your thread over the tie in point and let the bobbin hang. With your free hand lift and lower the butts until the thread has snugged down to the hook shank. Maintain your grip and add another turn of thread. Then you can let go.
Here’s a Wicham’s Fancy tied using this technique.
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
A.
Here is Marc Petitjean showing where to find the CdC feathers on a mallard.
If you place your thumb on the back of the bird and run it toward the tail you will feel a lump. That’s the preen gland. The CdC feathers are around that. Don’t expect many from each bird. This one had just three.
Cheers,
C.
AlanB and maodiver, thanks! I’ve picked CDC off a Canada goose and there are quite a few of them (20-30) around the gland. Again sorry for the hijack. Love the info on the mallard wings, which my friend is saving for me also.
