Stripped Peacock Quill Bodies

[Mike62]

Yes - The hackle undulates back-and-forth.......That’s the main reason that Scotch tied hackle is soooo deadly!
[/quote]

The middle picture, the hackling on that particular fly is what you refer to as 'Scotch hackle'? I've always been curious as to how you got that effect. Any insights you'd care to share on how to wrap it would be appreciated.

The bottom picture, what hook is that? It looks like it was hand forged by Dame Julianna herself.

[Trifly]

Will this pattern of ronr lay back as well?

[Trifly]

What I like to do is submerge the flies in a jar water to see how the flies respond. In the warmer months I actually do testing in the river with real current to see how the flies act. At times I have used a GoPro or underwater point & click camera along a friend to assist so I can see how the flies respond in a real underwater situation. What we see above the water is a lot different than the flies underwater.

John

So would the partridge lay down against the abdomen in current? The pattern of ronr's?

[Trifly]

What I like to do is submerge the flies in a jar water to see how the flies respond. In the warmer months I actually do testing in the river with real current to see how the flies act. At times I have used a GoPro or underwater point & click camera along a friend to assist so I can see how the flies respond in a real underwater situation. What we see above the water is a lot different than the flies underwater.

John

So would the partridge lay down against the abdomen in current? The pattern of ronr's?

Not necessarily.

See my post to help answer your question... viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8123&p=91453#p91453

John

I certainly appreciate your efforts. I wonder how the hackle responds in water that is a bit more turbid. Or, after a few hours with a bit of fish slime on it. I wonder if being pulled out of the water and given a high velocity ride on a fly line a few dozen times would make a difference.

How would this pattern hold up to your experiment?

wet.jpeg (134.66 KiB) Viewed 5096 times

Again, thank you for your efforts.

[ronr]

this is interesting to me.... the behavior of the hackle in the stream. Its pretty hard to simulate the action of a fly in a river by dunking it in a jar... or swimming it in the sink...
but, do you veterans of swinging wets want that hackle to cling to the body as in the pictures, or protrude a bit from the body...

I've been of the opinion that the hackle us going to undulate while moving in the current, given the impression of life....

[Theroe]

John-those are excellent videos you posted...... really quite nice and informative. I have a 20 gallon fish tank with the filter in it that simulates current flow to some extent, and it works very very well. I read somewhere in a book that some of our sports older luminaries had done that before and I learned a lot from it. I used to have a smaller tank next to the first tank, that I had a heater, and I would take nymphs and put them in the warmer water and watch them hatch to see what they did......That coupled with watching fish in the hatchery for days on end really improved my success ratio. I’ll see if I can get some video in the next day or two.....

BTW - Hackle on that fly is a very light speckled Darbee dun.
Dana

[wsbailey]

Barry Ord Clarke recently posted a video of stripping peacock quill with bleach. New to me; at the end he mentioned using tying wax to strip the quill(not the kind in a tube).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NTI6pLDF1 ... e=youtu.be

[PhilA]

A common criticism of stripping peacock eyes or stripped herl with chlorine bleach is that controlling the process can be tricky. If over-bleached, the flue-less barb stems are brittle. This has happened to me. Dipping in warm liquid paraffin wax followed by cooling and pulling off the flue is quick but messy. However, it yields nice supple stems.

Being a low-volume tyer, I just strip by hand, pulling single barbs repeatedly between my thumbnail pressed against the fleshy pad of the index finger (tip-to-butt). The flue steadily comes off during a series of pulls.

[wsbailey]

As someone who dyes fly tying materials I work with chemicals all the time. I recently dyed some yarn blue in an indigo vat. The pH was slightly too high. Two drops of acetic acid in four gallons of water was all it took. Working with chemicals requires a light touch at times.

[narcodog]

Dana, your the first person that mentioned stripping the rachis. I have some that I stripped back in the '70's that I have had stored in a jar of glycerin.

W.S. different subject, what do you use to thin Kelson's head cement and what is the liquid wax made of I know that odor but I just can't place it.