Ruffed Grouse Skin

[NJpatbee]

Beautiful grouse skin! I am never without one and it was my favorite game bird back in my upland hunting days.

[DOUGSDEN]

Ray,
A Beautiful, beautiful skin for sure! Your post brings back so many memories of Grouse hunting in our area many years ago! I could cry out loud over the numbers of skins I literally destroyed due to stupidity and simply wanting to get the birds skinned and in the freezer or in the pot! All of this was, of course, before I tied. I run across perhaps one or two birds a year during deer season. When I see them (most often only hear them), I cheer out loud for the sheer joy of being in the presence of the King of Game Birds!
Thank you Ray for posting this! The trip down memory lane is well worth it! Would anyone like to swap Grouse stories?
Doug in the den

[Theroe]

Doug
Sounds like a great topic for a new thread!!
The ruffed grouse is very important in NE Pennsylvania( for hunters, fishers, and eaters!) : the bread crust- basket series is locally very important on the Lackawaxen, Broadhed, and a few other rivers.....Ivan’s version rules here!

[DOUGSDEN]

Dana,
That's pretty cool! It's nice to know that they are still around! I miss them terribly! One of our friends here locally recorded (on her smart phone of course) a whip-poor-will very close to their house! I had not heard one of those in a very long time! How exciting that was to hear this once common "summer bird"! I am beginning to wonder what kind of plumage these guys have? Hmmm....
Dougsden

[swellcat]

Grouseabou.

[Theroe]

Grouseabou.

DEADLY stuff.......the ruffed grouse has more excellent,usable feathers for tying than you can imagine. It is THE most underutilized common game bird we have as tyers (IMHO, of course. Try the secondary tail feathers (there is probably a scientific name for them but I don't know it) when tying up standard PT nymphs - they work VERY well at this time of year, as they are lighter than PT. Its called a GT in lieu of PT. You can also use the leftover herls cut from the main tail / wing feathers when making the breadcrust / breadbasket, to make "Grouse Tail Nymphs".
And this bird has two VERY distinct color phases: red & brown. If you ever come across a very dark phase male bird, check the center tail feather: every one in a hundred will have a dark cherry red stem, which makes a killer bread basket. I have found FOUR since I started looking in the 1980's !!

Ray, I think you took a picture of one of mine last weekend - it is collar hackled with looong Darbee dun.....perhaps if you have a picture, maybe you can post here for all to see??

Dana

[Theroe]

WOW Ray - YOU ARE GOOD!!

For anyone who is interested, Ray ALREADY posted a picture of the "Cherry Breadbasket" - its under Member Photos >Roscoe Trip 2018.



P.S. - a "Breadcrust" is size 14 & 12 1x long. The "Breadbasket" is size 6,8,10 2x long.

Dana

[NightWatchman]

Wow that is an impressive fly.

[FlyFisherMann1955]

Dana,

Does the Breadbasket also use a quill from the tail of a Ruffed Grouse?

Any chance you can post a list of materials for this fly and any tying tips?

I fished the Breadcrust a lot on Brodhead Creek in the 70s; however, it didn't use the Ruffed Grouse
quill. The local "wet fly expert" at the time was John DeVivo, who taught wood & leather shop at Stroudsburg
Junior High School and worked at Lim's Sporting Goods on Main St. He tied the body with a brown hackle stem
that was soaked in warm water.

Thanks- Ken

[Theroe]

Ken
I have met a few people who use that technique, and it works well. As with every other pattern there are many variations. I first learned about the bread crust in the 1970s - The Vince Marinaro version to be more specific. At that time period, the fly was tied as follows:
size 12 Mustad 3906B
rusty brown wool tapered body
Dyed brown condor wrapped over the wool
Grizzle hackle

I spent a very long time searching for that dyed condor herl from Reed tackle........condor works EXCELLENT, but doesn’t stand up to fish teeth.

After that I found out about the Rolka version, which is tied sort of curved and spiky. That version also works. And then I met Ivan, and he showed me his version which works the best of all.

Maybe, at sometime in the not too distant future I can post up some pictures of the different variations of this fly pattern.
Dana