FLYMPH FORUM

I've been working on this lately. It is a Quill Gordon Soft Hackle.
Getting it to be clean looking is a real challenge. Hans makes it look easy.

Quill Gordon Soft Hackle

Partridge Barbless Sproat Wet size 14
Body: Stripped peacock quill
Hackle: Partridge
Deer Creek Diamond Fine UV Resin

Very neat!
Any preparation to the quill pre-wrapping, like soaking?
Are you coating the entire body in resin? Quill flies do not have a long life expectancy without some kind of reinforcement. I usually head cement the thread base before wrapping the herl up, never thought of coating over.

The only preparation I did was strip the quill with my fingers. Then after I had the fly finished, I coated the entire body with resin.
I used head cement on the thread after tying off next to the hook eye.

Very well tied, Paul. The quill work is excellent, with realistic segmentation and graduated spacing. And the sparse hackle is just the right length and evenly distributed. Close to perfect, I'd say.

tie2fish wrote:Very well tied, Paul. The quill work is excellent, with realistic segmentation and graduated spacing. And the sparse hackle is just the right length and evenly distributed. Close to perfect, I'd say.

Wow, thank you Bill!

Hi Novabass,
The peacock herl I have is narrow but fine for doing heads, bodies etc. when using 3 or 4 together. When stripping them, however, they aren't the greatest, where do you get wider herl that gives you the nice color separation on the stripped herl? I like stripped herl bodies especially for a mayfly imitation called a Blue Upright which is deadly up this way. Thank you.

raven4ns wrote:Hi Novabass,
The peacock herl I have is narrow but fine for doing heads, bodies etc. when using 3 or 4 together. When stripping them, however, they aren't the greatest, where do you get wider herl that gives you the nice color separation on the stripped herl? I like stripped herl bodies especially for a mayfly imitation called a Blue Upright which is deadly up this way. Thank you.

I actually got these from Spirit River.
I took a quill from the outer eye of the feather.

Tim ~ You are absolutely correct about the limitations of strung peacock herl. You need to find some peacock eyesticks, the larger the better. Spirit River sells nice ones, including a range of bleached and dyed ones that provide a lot of color options. The Dette Fly Shop in Roscoe, NY also has some very nice large eye sticks, but the absolute best thing is to make friends with someone who owns a peacock who will save molted tail feathers for you .

Beautiful fly, Paul. The taper and segmentation on the quill body is what I think most of us strive for when working with quill body flies. Good idea on the resin too!

tie2fish wrote:Tim ~ You are absolutely correct about the limitations of strung peacock herl. You need to find some peacock eyesticks, the larger the better. Spirit River sells nice ones, including a range of bleached and dyed ones that provide a lot of color options. The Dette Fly Shop in Roscoe, NY also has some very nice large eye sticks, but the absolute best thing is to make friends with someone who owns a peacock who will save molted tail feathers for you .

Where do I get a friend like that? I want one for Christmas!

Beautiful fly, Paul. The taper and segmentation on the quill body is what I think most of us strive for when working with quill body flies. Good idea on the resin too!

Thank you!