Quill Body Flies by Dana

[letumgo]

Hank - I'm a complete "newbee" with quill body construction. My tutorial may be more like witnessing a car crash in slow motion. Worth trying, anyway... Maybe someone can learn from my mistakes.

[hankaye]

, Ray, Howdy;

Well, you know you can't help yourself, you're going to do it anyway ... sooooo .
Take us along on your adventure into this 'new' method. Warts an all it should be
an interesting adventure. Looking forward to it.

hank

[letumgo]

You got it Hank.

Dana - I wish I had taken more pictures when we were together. Next time, perhaps.

[Theroe]

Good god Ray! You don’t miss a thing!...very accurate description. I do love quill bodies for their durability: IF you ca find the correct colors, a well tied quill body catches almost as good as condor, which is fragile. The culprit is always the fishes teeth. I’ve noticed all of the Leisenring / Hidy patterns “ride high “ on the hook, meaning the body sits forward of the beginning downturn of the hook. This coupled with the few bare Silk wraps between the end of the body and tail, help prevent the fly from shredding. Having had this issue myself, I’m sure the previous two points were dialed in by Jim & Pete, to alleviate the problem!
Ray - it was a real pleasure to spend time with you, Carl, William, Bill, Lance, John and everyone else ......boy, I love this forum!
Dana

[fly_fischa]

Thanks for the thorough how to Ray, couple of Q’s if I may to either u or Dana?

Dana leaves a small step at the back of the thread underbody, near the base of the tail. This helps the first wrap of hackle fiber to sit properly on the back of the fly. A small detail, which comes with experience.

Small step are u referring to a thread bump/ramp?

Also wanted to ask about the quill, you say trim the fibers either side short, when you flatten the quill with the pliers are you positioning the quill flat with stubs pointing out either side of the rachis or trying to flatten the quill with the stubs contacting top and bottom of the pliers?

Last question is how do you wrap the quill, flattened quill with Stubbs left and right of the rachis slightly overlapping? Also do u try to mount the quill so that the curvature of the rachis is positioned so that it conforms to the direction you are wrapping? Flattening the quill may negate this a bit, I grade all my quills and biots so I know which way they will naturally wrap. Makes for a neater and more durable body. Love to hear your thoughts...

[Theroe]

one of these days, I WILL figure out how topost my pictures here, them I will post SBS on quill bodies... this is very frustrating. I might try the site Bill(tie2fish) recommended...