I use the Easter Egg Dye to do mine. I do not bleach the feathers before hand. I put 6 tablets in a 32 oz convience store cup. I bend the feathers in half and put them in the cup. Cover the cup and leave them for a week.
I use up to 8 colors in them with a regular PT and a golden PT. I have made them all combinations of color.
I can buy all of the colors that I need. They cost the same as natural, IIRC. Since we don’t have a lot of pheasants running around Tennessee, all pheasant tail is brought in from other places. For smaller PTNs, one can use 3 different colors because it is fairly hard to work with more than 3 strands on a size 18 or 20 hook.
Like EdD said, you can get dyed tail feathers for the same price as naturals so I buy mine all dyed, nice and neat, sealed in a great little package. To be really honest with you, I don’t think that the difference between natural pheasant feathers and dyed olive, or natural and dyed orange, or natural and any other color makes much difference in most free-stone streams 99% of the time. Food is scarce and the water is fast, trout have to act in a split second if they want a snack.
On the other hand, dyeing your own fly tying stuff is a rite of passage that we all go through. Some stuff turns out well, some stuff gets ruined, and some stuff turns out turns out decidedly different than expected. It all makes a good story and good material for BB posts.
When I have questions about coloring fly tying material, I go right to the source and check AK Best’s book on dyeing and bleaching. Have fun with your project. 8T
So often, when I read good advice, it’s like snow tire sales in July. This may be the most TIMELY advice I’ve ever read. Thanks, Rick. I’ll bet I might be able to find some of that dye on sale Monday.
Thanks for the good advise that has been posted so far. Being in the panhandle of Texas, and growing up in western Kansas, we have no shortage of pheasants. I have quite a few tail feathers, some from some I have shot, and others that have been given to me. In fact, I was helping a friend move on Monday, and he gave me a tail. So, I would rather dye what I have on hand than buy more.
I have been dying feathers and fur for a few years, but didn’t know about the colors used in the dyed nymphs, and how well they would dye. In the past I have primarily used Rit and Koolaid, but Easter egg dye should be on sale at Wal Mart in a day, and it may be a good time to pick some up and try it too.
If you have a Male Ringneck Pheasant skin, then you can tie something similar to a PTN in red or yellow using the body feathers. Here’s a pattern of mine tied up in red:
Tie on the thread, wrap to the rear tying in a brown copper rib (for the red version, normal copper for the yellow).
Bunch the feather together, and tie the tips over the bend for the tail. Then bring the thread forward, and wrap the feather forward around the shank, stopping where the thorax will begin. Hold the stem above the hook and tie off the abdomen, but do not trim yet. This will be the wing case. Since these feathers are red (or yellow) along the fibre, and change to a mottled brown near the base, try to get it so the wing case is in this brownish colour. Wrap the rib forward in the opposite direction that you wrapped the feather (you can bring the rib to the thorax to and add weight if you want). Dubb the thorax with a dark brown dubbing (seals fur, wool, etc). Wrap a partrige soft hackle and pull underneat for legs (you can also find nice soft hackle feathers on the wing of pheasant, which are a nice chesnut brown and would look really good too). Bring the wing case forward, tie off, trim, and form a small head, whip finish, cement, and fish.
I know this isn’t dying, but it’s one way to get a few colours other than brown, and still have something that is a pheasant based nymph. Also, I’ve not seen many recipies that call for these coloured feathers, so it’s one good way to use them up.
Thanks for all of the advise. My wife bought six boxes of Easter egg dye the day after Easter for 36 cents a package, and I bought six packages later in the week for 18 cents a package. A while later the tablets went into water, and after soaking pheasant tail feathers in dishwater soap in water followed by a water rinse, the feathers went into the dye bath.
Today they came out and I have pheasant tail feathers in four colors. (I would have had them in six colors, but I couldn’t tell two of the color tablets apart, and my wife was visiting her sister for a while, so I couldn’t have her look at the tablets to figure out the colors for me. Now that she is back I will have to have her figure out the other two colors.)
Cool, pheasant tail feathers in colors! Thanks all, thanks Rick.
