Harvesting Fur and Feathers for Tying Flies

[Loper]

I’m getting into fly fishing and took a fly tying class this past weekend. I’m trying to figure out if there are any materials from the animals I harvest this hunting season that are worth keeping for fly tying. I know buck tails are useful, any others?

For those of you that hunt and tie flies, what animal’s hair, fur or feathers do you keep after harvesting game? Also, of those animals, which specific parts of the body do you take the fur or feathers from? Any animals you tried using materials from that didn’t work out very good, either weren’t easy to tie with or didn’t work well in the water to catch fish?

 

[Dogone]

Hungarian partridge skins are sought after by fly tyres. Worth a few bucks to the right buyer.

 

[I live in round valley]

Absolutely. Which species are you most likely to harvest? That might help narrow it down.
There’s quite a few bird and mammal game species with useful hair/fur/ feathers for tying

 

[MTPipeliner]

Pheasant tails are always good. I keep some different body feathers from pheasants, grouse, turkeys for wet flies. If you hunt ducks you can keep wing feathers and there are little feathers from their oil gland called CDC that are used for some flies.

 

[3forks]

Hungarian partridge skins for soft hackles, and pheasant tails, skins, capes.

Turkey (biots, tails, and marabou).

Mallard feathers (flank and CDC).

I only hunted upland birds with my dogs, and I would skin out my birds and use borax as a curing agent.

I’d sell some skins to a local shop. The skins aren’t worth much, but I got enough to pay for a few flats of shells.

I’d keep the best skins for myself, and I’ve got dozens left.

Fur from rabbits and muskrats for dubbing, but I’d never mess with that.

 

[matchu865]

Typically a couple of birds will give you enough material for a ton of flies, so really I've only kept a couple of goose and mallard feathers, as well as some pheasant tails. I also got took home shed goat fur that I will use a dubbing at some point.

 

[Clovis]

Bucktail is good and easy to preseve. Pheasant tails for pheasant tail nymphs and dries, turkey tails for variants of the same and nymph cases, upland bird whole skins for soft hackles, and if you have a beard trimmer and a cheap coffee grinder, you can make dubbing blends from almost any fur, either straight or mixed with some synthetics. Snowshoe hare feet, which are harder to find commercially than they used to be. I tie clouser style streamers with fox and coyote tail. I saved a nice square of hide off a late season deer a while back but the quality wasn't as good as what you can buy. It is getting harder to buy good hair for comparaduns and I recently saw some writing by Barry Ord Clarke, a prominent fly tier, about using a deer mask for that---basically skinning out a doe's head like a hare's mask. I may try that this year and can see how the hair could be excellent for comparaduns. If you are just tying for yourself as a hobby there isn't a lot of gain in it, but it is fun and satisfying to use the byproducts of animals you hunted. I have never had a probably with bugs from it but it is often mentioned as a risk to your whole supply of materials if you bring them in from something you killed and processed yourself. There is a book about using roadkill materials that you might be able to find somewhere but washing, dying, etc. seems like too much work for too little gain to me so I haven't done it.

 

[doc holiday13]

squirrel tails

 

[RickH]

Any kind of fur for dubbing on lots of fly patterns. Deer or elk hair for caddis dry fly patterns, stimulators, wings for hoppers etc.. As mentioned above pheasant tail for pheasant tail nymphs. Any kind of fur or feather can be used. Rabbit hair/squirrel hair strips are good for streamers, leeches. Breast feathers off of ducks (wood duck is my favorite) for tails on lots of flies. CDC feathers from the butt of a duck for dry flies. Come up with your own patterns.

 

[Loper]

Absolutely. Which species are you most likely to harvest? That might help narrow it down.
There’s quite a few bird and mammal game species with useful hair/fur/ feathers for tying

I’m chasing elk, but will also have opportunities to get a whitetail or two. I hunt ducks, but the areas I hunt I don’t get mallards, mostly teal and divers. I’ll be taking my son out to hunt squirrels this year and we may see some rabbits while doing so. I may hunt turkeys in the Spring. .

 

[IdahoBeav]

FYI, you can get all the tanned-hide elk and deer hair you'll ever need at your local taxidermist.

 

[steelheadmike]

I’m chasing elk, but will also have opportunities to get a whitetail or two. I hunt ducks, but the areas I hunt I don’t get mallards, mostly teal and divers. I’ll be taking my son out to hunt squirrels this year and we may see some rabbits while doing so. I may hunt turkeys in the Spring. .

Duck feathers are the easiest to use as flytying material. You want the banded flank feathers that sit on the body under the wing. Mallard and Teal are good black/white colors. Wood duck is great as it's a little bronze color. Wigeon is a nice chestnut color.

Pheasant tails are east to grab too.

As far as skins, I always felt that dealing the an animal hide was too much of a PITA to take for flytying material. I'd rather buy a square of deer or elk hair for a few bucks that deal with preserving a chunk of hide. Same goes for bucktails. I'd rather go get a bunch of pre-dyed bucktails than deal with one un-dyed, un-preserved tail. Unless you really want to tie flies with an animal you killed, the juice ain't worth the squeeze, imo.

 

[roadrunner]

Elk and antelope are two that make a great wing and spun body (irresistible Adams), hoppers, drakes, and of course Elk Hair Caddis.

 

[EastHumboldt]

I tied flies for a long time. Steelheadmike’s comment nails it. If you can find materials already prepped it’s the way to go. The stuff I used the most was peacock herl, ostrich herl, and chicken rooster hackles from barred rock and red chickens. Also buck tail, turkey, and duck feathers.

 

[steelheadmike]

I'll add one more thing: if you come across stuff that you can't walk into your LFS and easily find, the juice is DEFINITELY worth the squeeze.

Mandarin Duck, Golden Pheasant, Rhea, Jungle Cock, etc....along with a few that aren't techincally legal to import to the states (anyone planning a PB hunt??).

 

[Alpine4x4]

I tied flies for years and my dad just got back into it. Pheasants for sure along with huns and chukars for soft hackles. I have a ruffed grouse I'm about to give my dad for soft hackles as well. Turkey tails. Basically anything can be used. You dont have to follow recipes 100% either. Using "exotic" feathers like a ruffed grouse may give you a pattern that imitates the bug, but itsnt widely used since they arent a common material. Just experiment. Especially if its for streams, tie away.

 

[406life]

I'll add that you'll want to be careful in you are bartering/selling/buying feathers (and some hides). You can run afoul of ESA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act violations, so do your research.

 

[matchu865]

I'll add that you'll want to be careful in you are bartering/selling/buying feathers (and some hides). You can run afoul of ESA and Migratory Bird Treaty Act violations, so do your research.

Only the finest polar bear fur and eagle feathers for my flies!

 

[idelkslayer]

Deer and elk hide don't require anything special in terms of preservation for use in flies. Just make sure the skin side is scraped clean and salt the hide. Nail it to a board until it is dry. You don't need to tan it. Same with the tails from whitetail deer, just salt it and pin until dry. Dyeing isn't that difficult.

I use hair from elk and moose necks for tails on nymphs and dry flies.

You can get Biots from duck and goose wing feathers. Obviously many other usable feathers from ducks and upland bird species.

 

[weekender7]

One of my greatest pleasures come from catching trout on an elk hair caddis tied myself from the hair of a bull I killed with my bow. To me, it’s like 100 times better with a fly I tied vs a bought fly.