Chicken Feathers..Can you use them for tying jigs ??

[LRB]

I have a beautiful flock of Barred Rock hens and roosters....the roosters have beautiful tail feathers...and they sure get suspicious of me, when I start following them around !!:D
I have a bunch of feathers, just hanging around the hen house...most are small and fluffy...can they be used for building jigs ??




MaryLou ~~

[skiptomylu]

Most of the feathers you see on jigs and flies are chicken. Lots of other types too, but chicken is by far most used.

Some chickens are even bread to have a special shape to the stem for fly tying.
Skip

[AgriHawg]

I thought turkey feathers were used the most.

[LRB]

Most of the feathers you see on jigs and flies are chicken. Lots of other types too, but chicken is by far most used.

Some chickens are even bread to have a special shape to the stem for fly tying.
Skip

Hi Skip....
So your saying, I can use the feathers from the chicken coop...sure do hate to waste them...
Thanks Skip...
MaryLou~~

[skiptomylu]

Hi Skip....
So your saying, I can use the feathers from the chicken coop...sure do hate to waste them...
Thanks Skip...
MaryLou~~

Strung neck hackle is what we use for tails and the cape (long very thin and a little stiff) are for dry flies. Long wide type on capes are used for bass flies and such. Saddle hackle has a lot of fluff near the stem and they are a bit more narrow and used in palmered hackle and collars mostly. The neck hackle will not have near as much fluff near the stem end as saddle hackle though and that neck hackle is for your tails.

Turkey used most is the marabou. Turkey tail feathers are use a lot on flies.

However chicken are by far the most used feathers. Most every bird has some feathers that fly tiers use including but not limited to.... Partridge, Chuckar, Starling, Duck, Peacock, etc.

Need to learn what is used for what and one of the best places to learn some of this in on fly tying boards just looking at patterns and reading things.

Let me see if I can find some hackle info.. Here is a place to see about higher end hackle and also has some really great info about hackle..
Conranch Fly Tying Hackle
http://www.conranch.com/hackle_article.html

This probably will not help a lot on tying jigs as we use cheaper materials for feathers than do people tying flies.

MaryLou call me if you want to chat about what you have and I will try to help, but you should be able to use a good many feathers you have.

Skip

[AgriHawg]

That's what it was...marabou. Most marabou is from turkeys...right?

[ifish]

MaryLou,
Sounds like you have a great resource for tying jigs. Nothing like trying new feathers. You might come up with something unique and catch a bunch of fish on. Some of the easiest and most effective jigs are the marabou style jigs. Break out the vise and play around and I bet you come up with something. Post some pictures if you want!! Here is a very good site for patterns. You will have to dig arond the site but there is a lot of very good info on tying.http://www.flyanglersonline.com/

[skiptomylu]

I know you are familiar with FAOL, but look up some soft hackle patterns on there and look at how maybe ways you an use feathers.


Yes marabou is usually Turkey. Some grizzly marabou comes from the back end of a chicken.
Skip

[LRB]

Hey Guys....Thanks for the input.....Not only do I have my feathers..but I have a bunch of scrap fur..lynx..fox..beaver..muskrat..coyote..badger..m uledeer..WT's..bobcat..this is natural color fur..

So I have enough stuff to keep me busy..:D



MaryLou~~

[skiptomylu]

Hey Guys....Thanks for the input.....Not only do I have my feathers..but I have a bunch of scrap fur..lynx..fox..beaver..muskrat..coyote..badger..m uledeer..WT's..bobcat..this is natural color fur..

So I have enough stuff to keep me busy..:D



MaryLou~~

Even mole skins are used for dubbing.

Skip