Quintessential North Country Spiders

[JohnP]

Some of the starling feathers make a decent substitute for snipe, I believe.

[Mataura mayfly]

Some of the starling feathers make a decent substitute for snipe, I believe.

In my opinion- too true John.
Indeed I tie a heck of a lot more Purple & Starling than I do Purple & Snipe. Not sure if the fish know the difference, but Starling is a lot easier to get my hands on here.
The Snipe feather may be a little softer though and in a fussy situation to well educated high pressured trout it may make a difference. Plus there is often just the fact some folk like to tie the traditional patterns or as close as the law allows them to. There must be someone selling Snipe wings in the States and if anybody knows who- they are quite probably members here and will chime in with an address soon enough.

[JohnP]

This vendor is in the UK and has some hard-to-find bird skins. I ordered from them once and the delivery time was not bad and the shipping was reasonable:
http://www.cookshill-flytying.co.uk/gsr.htm

If you scroll down a bit, they have snipe.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

I've purchased skins from Steve Cookshill in the past and the bird skins are first rate. He hand selects each skin and would rather not have a skin in stock than sell a low grade one.

[JohnP]

Here is another source:

http://www.northcountryflies.com/englis ... -skin.html