Pale watery

Post by **ashley** » Sun May 06, 2012 3:15 am

Thought I would show of a new fly which I came up with last week to try and use some of French Partridge I have lying around. Not original in style but not all flies have squirrel dyed with curry powder.

: P1030070.JPG (32.76 KiB) Viewed 6993 times

The hook is a standard straight eye dry fly hook.

Tying thread/body- Sparton yellow thread
Thorax- Dyed turmeric squirrel
Hackle- Feather from the outer wing of a French Partridge.

Post by **Donald Nicolson** » Sun May 06, 2012 6:25 am

Turmeric has a very old and honoured place in the dyeing catalogue.
French partridge wings were recommended by Roger Fogg in his book
'A Handbook of North Country Trout Flies - 1988' for colouring with fibre
tipped pens. Uncoloured I think they are a very nice hackle on any spider.
A very nice spider.

Post by **Soft-hackle** » Sun May 06, 2012 7:46 am

Nice job, Ashley. Looking forward to seeing more.

Mark

Post by **Old Hat** » Sun May 06, 2012 8:53 am

Very cool. Was the squirrel natural before you dyed it?

Post by **Roadkill** » Sun May 06, 2012 9:51 am

A very nice fly!

Post by **kanutripr** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:06 am

Excellent ashley. A fellow experimenter! I went through the kitchen trying everything that might make an interesting colour That was a fun time!!

Keep up the good work.

Vicki

Post by **ashley** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:13 am

Old Hat wrote:Very cool. Was the squirrel natural before you dyed it?

Yes, standard Grey Squirrel, we have lots of them around, I seem to collect rather a few so get to dye a few. Current thinking of natural dye for the natural look.

Post by **ashley** » Mon May 07, 2012 12:15 am

Donald Nicolson wrote:Turmeric has a very old and honoured place in the dyeing catalogue.
French partridge wings were recommended by Roger Fogg in his book
'A Handbook of North Country Trout Flies - 1988' for colouring with fibre
tipped pens. Uncoloured I think they are a very nice hackle on any spider.
A very nice spider.

I know the book, I remember the quote now you mention it. I need to go through it again.

Post by **letumgo** » Mon May 07, 2012 9:26 pm

Lovely and intriguing pattern. Can you tell us more about how you dyed the squirrel?

Post by **ashley** » Wed May 09, 2012 12:55 pm

letumgo wrote:Lovely and intriguing pattern. Can you tell us more about how you dyed the squirrel?

Yes, no problem.

I dyed a Grey Squirrel skin in the normal (at least for me). Heat some water in a pan till its boiling, at this point put the termeric in and dissolve (I do it by eye but roughly 1/3 of one of those glass spice jars is plenty). Through the pre-soaked skin into the dye bath and leave it till its the shade that you want. Add clear vinegar to fix it and rinse, dry it and bag it.

For this fly I use the back and flank fur which as been through the blender.

When I get around to it I'm going to try some different natural dyes.

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