Having just finished an order for pike and salt water flies, some therapy was needed. This is the result.
I feel better now!
Cheers,
A.
I’d feel a LOT better if my flies looked that good!
Cliff
Sharp looking wet fly!
Alan,
Very nice, very crisp. I went in reverse - after tying up a bunch of little tailwater stuff, I switched gears and turned out some saltwater/steelhead flies (that I may/may not use any time soon), just to clean out the pipes.
Regards,
Scott
Yeah. That’s just beautiful.
Very nice tie.
Alan, do you strip the peacock quill yourself or buy it pre-stripped?
If you buy the full eyes, where do you get them? The small eyes sold in the shops are pretty much junk and break easily.
Hi Steven,
Yes I did strip the herl myself using an eraser on a board (Bleaching leaves them brittle, and paraffin wax is just too much messing around). Those eyes came from a supplier on eBay. Yes good eyes are hard to source. A friend had some left from the 1950’s and they were nothing like what we have today. Almost twice as wide and much better marked. One of the few things that we don’t have better quality today than then.
I believe it is the older birds that produce the better eyes. As less people eat peafowl today than ever before you would think older birds would be easy to come by. There is a small flock near here with an old alpha male bird. I know the land owner doesn’t mind if it meets with an “accident”. Maybe next summer I will have to have a late night trip up there. This peacock will not permit any of the others to grow a tail, the fights are quite ferocious. Got any good recipes for peafowl?
Cheers,
A.
There is an RV park near Ventura, Ca, that keeps a flock of peafowl, kind of as watchdogs. Take your RV and I’m sure they’d let you harvest all you like.
Alan,
I was half dreading a mushy fly. Great relief when I saw the image. Nicely done 
Cheers,
Hans W
That would be a very long way to go from Scotland. I’m a fly tier… I can’t afford a RV. The nearest thing to an RV I can afford are shoes
Cheers,
A.
