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Submitted by Andrew Lawrence on

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Richard and Martin,

Thank you very much for answering my question. I have been tying for a while now, but I mostly fish salt water for striped bass around Massachusetts in the States, so my use of feathers tends to be a little less delicate. I trout fish when the opportunity presents itself, but there's far more salt water around me than there is fresh. I have been tying small dry flies and streamers for a couple of years and outside of hackle, haven't used many skins. I'm constantly fascinated, and somewhat overwhelmed by how much deeper into the weeds you can get with this hobby (obsession?), and I really appreciate the help. Thanks for the article and all the great work you guys do.

Andrew

Submitted by ed plew on

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I would like to print out step by step instrutions of cinnamon brown emerger by dave mcphail cant find
it on any web sites can you help thank for your help ed
all I find is videos

Submitted by 1737246307 on

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This pattern is a fish getter. trust me it works very well for me...

Submitted by Jason Willcox on

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Awesome streamer conversions of tried and true salmon patterns. I may have to tie a few of these for the opener! The Miramichi still has plenty of ice, and once she opens, big streamers like these should be perfect for getting down to where the kelts are!

I don't mean to be picky, but "Nashwack" should be spelled "Nashwaak"

Submitted by Blake on

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Those guides are absolutely terrible. Literally had to stop watching I was getting so mad. Stop barking commands and net the fish for Christ's sake!

If anyone is interested in seeing how these feathers are used on flies, search "You Tube" for: Richard Katzman, Catskill Tube Flies and Catskill Hook Flies. I use a lot of these feathers for my flies. With 8 skins I have an enormous amount of feathers to chose from. These feathers will supply me with many years of fly tying material and an enormous amount of tube and hook flies. The cost of preserving the skins and the time involved is a small investment for the amount of material you get.

Best regards,
Richard

Phil, thank you for asking that question. The easiest way to answer your question is, very liberally. You need to cover the skins totally in various stages of preservation. As far as the baths are concerned, I bathed them in a utility sink with enough water, soap and white vinegar to get a very soapy solution to cover the 8 skins.

The full amounts of items that I bought are:
Kitty Litter; 20 lbs largest box
White Vinegar: half gallon
Dawn Soap: 9 Oz
Boric Acid: 20 lbs
Baking Soda: 5 lbs

Too much of the above is not too much. The more you use the better the skins will do. Remember these skins are oily and some are fatty. I don't know how many skins you will be preserving which will dictate how much material you will need to use. The rule if thumb I used was, if the skins smelled, I repeated the procedure. The White Vinegar does a great job mixed with the other items. Good luck with preserving your feathers. If you need any other advice, you can email me.
Richard

Submitted by 1737246308 on

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You neglected to say what the proportions of soap, vinegar, borax and baking soda were. Phil

thanks a lot for this article. I am just going to keep chickens in my garden to have eggs, meat and feathers. is it the same way with chickens and other poultry? like pheasant, black bird, magpie or partridge.
pit

Thanks Martin,
That's the fly I was asking about.
I'll try to get in touch with Jim when I establish a You Tube account.
In the meantime, I Googled CASTS and found several acronyms
relative to autism and Asberger's Syndrome.
"Creative Autism Solution Team" and "Childhood Autism Spectrum Test"
are two examples.

Dennis

perskis,

I'll look into it. For some reason our system seems to dislike your images.
The originals seem fine, but when our site scales them, they get corrupted some way.
What program/system do you use to make them?

Martin

Andrew, in addition to Martin's response, I would also like to add a comment on why it's better to leave the feathers on the skin. Often in tying a fly, you are required to use a left feather and a right feather for tying wings. It is almost impossible to do that with all the feathers detached from the skin and stored in a bag. It would drive a tier insane and take up so much time trying to match them correctly. When I first started tying flies, I did what most tiers do, I bought feathers from a supplier that were randomly thrown into a bag. Not knowing what I know now, I thought that was okay. Then I started to build winged flies and quickly realized how much time I was wasting just trying to match feathers. That's why when you buy capes they are still on the skin. I look at it this way, time and quality are relative. If you tie your own flies, you do it because you get pleasure from building your own flies to use instead of going to the store and buy what they have to offer. If you put the time in, it will be worth it. Thank you for reading my article.

Andrew,

Yes you can, but the feathers are much easier to handle when they are on the skin. If you only need specific feathers - flank, CDC or wing feathers, you can pluck what you need and they will often be fine enough to be used as is. But a whole skin hold so many useful feathers, which can be nice to have.

Personally I find it worth the work to have the feathers "well organized" on the skin rather than stuffed into a bag.

Martin

Martin

Submitted by Andrew Lawrence on

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Can you just pluck the feathers from the skin, and wash the feathers?

Submitted by Brian 1737246308 on

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Great article on preserving. Looking forward to your next article.

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