greatest cheap material!!!

[sniperfreak223]

been tying up a bunch of soft hackles, and just wanted to say, if you've never tied with starling, you don't know what you're missing! they're easy to work with, small enough to hackle down to a size 22 or up to a size 14, and at $7 for a full skin, how can you go wrong? Oh, and if anyone was wondering, I get about 350-400 flies out of one skin, so that $7 is well worth it.

 

[gfen]

sniperfreak223 wrote:
they're easy to work with

You must have tweezers for fingers if you think its easy to work with.

You're right on all other counts, though.

 

[sniperfreak223]

gfen wrote:

sniperfreak223 wrote:
they're easy to work with

You must have tweezers for fingers if you think its easy to work with.

You're right on all other counts, though.

hackle pliers? By the way, my fingers are the opposite, stubby little sausage fingers-that's why I play guitar and not bass

 

[buffalo7]

I never used them before maybe I'll try them, I use Quail and Chuckar Partidge. They cost the same price as a no.7 1/2 shotgun shell.

 

[sniperfreak223]

also, if you tie tiny flies, the wings that are included with the skins tie very nice quill wings. I have a wet fly pattern I call the "Darling Starling" that is killer on trout and big bluegills.

Darling Starling

Hook: standard wet fly (I use J. Stockard 207's), size 14-18
Thread: 8/0 to match body
Tail: starling fibers
Rib(optional): fine gold wire
Body: Hare's Ear Plus dubbing, I prefer tan, gold, olive, black & rust
Hackle: two wraps of starling
Wing: starling quill

great way to use the whole skin, and a great imitation of a drowned mayfly or caddisfly (used it effectively during both types of hatch)

 

[buffalo7]

sniperfreak223,
I never used starling before, if you can post a picture of you fly.

 

[tracker12]

When I was a kid I used to shoot the crap out of starlings out the bedroom window. Was a lot of fun until I got carried a way one day during a snowy day and kept banging them off the gutter hitting the gutter occasionally. Woke Dad up after a midnight shift. Old legion belt across the behind put that hunt to an end.

 

[franklin]

I tie a lot of staring patterns. Mike Heck has some nice starling patterns and recommends spring starling as the color has more of a flashy color to it.

 

[buffalo7]

I'd like to try Starling but I'm not going to buy any. I don't see them around here, mostly Crows, Ravens and Blue Jays.

 

[sniperfreak223]

buffalo7 wrote:
sniperfreak223,
I never used starling before, if you can post a picture of you fly.

here's a picture of my Darling Starling in Dark Hares Ear and on a size 16 J. Stockard 207 wet fly hook.

 

[buffalo7]

sniperfreak223,
Thanks for the pic. The fly looks nice, not to many people tie or fish wet flies anymore, or use quill wings. The last wet fly I fished was before Thanksgiving. I used a Parmachene Belle and caught trout on it that day.
Below are pictures of tools for quill wings that aren't availible anymore. I think they are all from Herters. I never checked for them on ebay. you would like them.

The first picture is of a wing former. You lay the quill on it, push the comb down and put head cement at the edge of the comb. when it dries you can put the quill away and cut the wings off anytime you want. It came with 4 sizes of combs, I use the next to the smallest most of the time.

The second picture is of winging pliers and hackle cutter. With the winging pliers you put the thread in the slot, squeeze to open the pliers, put the wings in, put the pliers on top of the hook shank, pull down on thread and you have a nice crimp on top of the hook shank. The hackle cutters are adjustable and use double edge razer blades. I don't use a lot of cut hackles but I used them a couple days ago on Elk Hair Caddis.

 

[gaeronf]

Where do you get yours at?

 

[pitt100]

$7? How about 1 BB shot out the back of my garage. All the starling feathers I could want.

Pitt

 

[gfen]

I'm intrigued by winging pliers, I think. THat's the second device, right, that looks just like a little metal bar?

So, I am confused. You lay your quills in and it helps you form the proper pinch wrap to bind them cleanly?

 

[buffalo7]

gfen wrote:

I'm intrigued by winging pliers, I think. THat's the second device, right, that looks just like a little metal bar?

So, I am confused. You lay your quills in and it helps you form the proper pinch wrap to bind them cleanly?

The winging pliers are on the right side, they work like reverse tweezers or what they now call beed tweezers. The thread goes in the slot, then you put the wings in and when you put it on the hook shank and pull down on the thread it will crimp the wings down on top of the hook.

George Herter was a genius, he had all kinds of inventions that had to do with hunting, fishing, trapping, gun stock makeing. there were other fly tying tools. I wished I still had my last catalog. I have a book on taxidermy by George Herter.

A few minutes before I logged in on PAFF I punched Herters in on google and saw that Cabelas was going to sell Herter products, but I don't know what ones.

 

[gfen]

Actually, to think of it, I've got a 1941 (I think?) Herter's instruction manual laying around. I should take a closer look at it.

 

[buffalo7]

George Herter wrote books on a lot of subjects, even household cleaning, and marrige advice. It's a good chance the manual is by him, I would take good care of it if it is.

He's been called names like "Oddball Know It All"and "Mail Order Genius". If you look around maybe you can find some of his tying tools on ebay or somewhere. Punch Herters in on Google, you'll see a lot about him.

 

[gfen]

I did a little light reading try to find one last night. My pinch wraps suck, and that's one of the reasons I stay away from winged wets with quill instead of rolled.

 

[buffalo7]

That tool does do a great job. By hand holding the wings in place is no problem, but getting your thread lined strait up and down before you snug it down is the hard part.

I used the tool mostly for dry flies like Royal Coachmans.

 

[PhilC]

I've got 5-6 partridge skins I bought years ago. I think i've used about 15% of the first one since then. Now that I'm tryin to reconnect with the fly community, I should be able to give these away...