Last week in Arizona I was watching some quail in the yard and as usual my thoughts eventually turn to tying when looking at birds. Anyone have experience with using quail feathers for flies? I am most interested in using them for wet hackle but was curious as it doesn’t seem to be a commonly used feather.
I have a couple bags of bobwhite feathers. They make fantastic soft hackles!
funny you should bring this up, yesterday I was attempting to tie a size 22 soft hackle, I needed something to use for hackle, the only thing I could find was a quail skin my sons friend had given him. the stem of the quail was so fragile I couldn’t get it to wrap around with out breaking either at the tie in point or at the point that I was holding it with hemostats.
others have had better results. check out this recent thread
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?t=33206&highlight=quail
Eric
Eric,
I’ve found a couple of ways around that problem:
insert the feather in split thread loop (stuff like UTC 70 or Gudebrod 10/0 works well), twist the thread until feather is trapped and wind on as a hackle loop. This works best if you strip the barbs off one side of the feather and then grasp in a clip before inserting in the split thread , then trim the quill portion off
strip some barbs off a feather, tie it down on the hook with tips facing forward about one shank length, tie the rest of the fly then push the barbs backwards over the fly and hold them down by applying either whip finish/half-hitch or however you finish your fly
Quail have a lot of nice, well-marked feathers, great for small soft hackles
Regards,
Scott
Thanks, Great suggestions.
Eric
One of my hunting friends gave me a couple of Gambol’s Quail skins.
Mine work quite well for soft hackles, so maybe it’s just the feathers you have or maybe the Bob White has more fragile feathers. I suppose that like any animal, there are variations between them.
The main use I’ve found for the Gambol’s Quail feathers is in tying a simple version of a prince nymph. Some of the quail feathers I have are dark brown with a white blaze down the center. I’ve found that if I tie this feather flat on top of the fly, I get the brown legs at the sides with the white center along the back. In the water, it does the same job as the white biots on the prince nymph, and I don’t have to mess with the biots, cutting out a step that I just don’t like to do.
The fly has been very effective for me and it much easier to tie than the standard prince.
Buddy
Nothing like steaming a feather right before tying to make it flexible… Hold in a wet paper towel until ready to tie it in.
art
Hi Gpatton,
I have tied with three different species of quail. All make great soft hackle flies. The one I use most is bob white, simply because that species is most available to me.
As mentioned above, the stems on bob white are not very strong. They also go from thin to somewhat thick fairly quickly. Thus, they are not the easyest feather to tie with.
That said, once tied in, the resulting soft hackle flies are excellent. Some of the colors on bob white are superb.
I have also found that some types of feathers on other types of quail have better stems.
Regards,
Gandolf
Thanks for all the info. I haven’t been able to examine either gambol or bob white feathers up close but from a distance the bob white’s seem to have a nice barring/speckling pattern that I didn’t observe on the gambols I saw. Are the gambol feathers a plain gray? I guess I should clarify that question - are the gambol neck feathers plain gray or are they mottled like the bob white’s? I’m assuming it is the neck feathers that make the best soft hackles.
Thanks,
Greg
We here at the Ranch raise a strain of Bob White Quail called Georgia Giants.
Normal BW mature at 8 oz. The GA Giants mature at 16 oz.
We obtained our first ones just so we could raise a few for our table.
Butter inside, wrapped in bacon, served w/wild rice, very delicious.
Several of our soft hackle tying friends wanted some to tie with.
Both Kenny & I tie with them. Everyone claims the stems are excellent to tie with. Many different color patterns can be found on this bird. I find that there is not a feather in the bird that can not be tied with. Each and everyone make excellent soft hackle & nymphs. Quite a range in sizes can be selected from all over this bird. They work well in the water but not as good as the JV hen. (genetic hen)
If you have access to BW from hunting, I would encourage you to try them.
Denny
Denny’s Hackle is the best, for the buck! That is what I have found, from doing business with Conranch Hackle. They are Sponsor of FAOL, and Denny is a member of FAOL.
Does not get any better than that.
~Parnelli
The “eyed” feathers from the cape of a male Mearn’s Quail (aka Fools Quail) make EXCELLENT substitues for Jungle Cock Nails when the outer spot is colored with a # 136M Pantone pen and then coated with vinyl cement. For the benefit of gpatton, they have been a legal game bird in Arizona in the very recent past. They may not be today. Beautiful birds!
Alas,
My huntung friend moved away, so I never got a Mearns skin from him.
As far as I know, they still hunt them here. But as everyone knows, such regulations change continually…
Buddy
Two years ago I hunted mearns quail in AZ with a friend from Flagstaff. We shot quite a few and I skinned them all for tying skins. I gave them to quite a few folks, even some that post here. There are a couple people on ebay selling them and getting very good money for the flank feathers especially.
My friend in Flagstaff saved his skins from this season and is selling them. I believe he is contacting Castleman Arms and others to market them.
I have saved skins from all North American quail, except mountain… I was plucking into baggies in those days. I far prefer the whole skins. They are available dirt cheap on ebay for the common flavors if you watch the auctions carefully.
art
As an addendum… Hen mearns quail have the prettiest pinkish-buff feathers of the whole works…