Handling difficult feathers

If you are having problems getting whole feather to sit properly on your flies, because it constantly rolls over and sits in the wrong angle, try this somewhat brutal, but efficient trick:

Flatten the stem with a small pair of flat nosed pliers. Hold the feather up against the hook shank and asses the angle. Flatten the stem lightly at the tie-in point in an appropriate angle.

Tying in the feather now, will force it to sit in the proper angle, and ease the process immensely.

The trick applies specially to feathers with very round stems. Some feathers, such as Golden Pheasant rump feathers or the best hackles, have flat or square stems, while others--like many duck feathers--have more roundes stems, which make the flat nosed pliers a good companion.