Waterfowl Feathers

[BigUn81]

Finally got out for my first hunt of the year Thanksgiving morning and had a good day, 2 mallard drakes and 4 gadwall hunting by myself. It had been mentioned to me in a previous post that waterfowl feathers make great tying materials so I took what I could off of the drake mallard that was in near perfect condition. It is beautiful stuff, I don't think I ever took the time to appreciate how intricate their feathers are until I picked this hobby up. My question is do I need to do anything to prepare/preserve the feathers? I clipped the wings off and they still have a little meat on them, do I need to stretch them and salt the meaty areas to dry them out like you would a turkey fan? Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, thanks in advance for the help.

[Fatman]

Take the flank feathers and wash them in warm soapy water rinse well, you can either put them in a pillow case and in the dryer - or put in a paper bag with a round hole cut in it fold the top over and use a blow dryer on low heat to dry them. On the wings make sure to get as much meat out of it as you can. I wash them down dry as much as possible put borax in the cut and get a good sealing container put borax on the bottom put the wings on top and cover them with more borax. Check for wet spots every few days and if you find any use a spoon and lift them off, replace with fresh borax.

Ron Lucas an on-line friend who does Atlantic Salmon flys has a great article on it. He has a 17 x 17 room full of materials many of them very expensive, so he definately knows. Material Preparation

[BigUn81]

Thank you! That is a great article, tons of good information in there. I treated the wings like a turkey fan and tried to remove as much meat as possible but I will wash them down and try the borax. This is one of the prettier birds I've shot, it looked like I might have just scared it to death, there was hardly any blood on it. I plan to do this more throughout the season so I would like to get the process down. The colors on this duck, and I'm guessing most ducks is absolutely stunning but we shoot a bunch of geese around here. Has anyone used Canada goose feathers in any of their tying? I would think the greys in them would make for good shad patterns?

[Fatman]

Glad to help!! Hate seeing any feathers get wasted. Yes you can use Canada goose - the flank feathers are bigger but you can still use them. If you can't find a use for the wing feathers - match left and rights and trade them to fly tyers, they can use them for classic wet fly wings. While you may not use them all someone else may be able to, and you can make some nice trades.

[skiptomylu]

You should have a pretty nice supply of flank feathers now and both of the ducks are really nice! Comgrats!

[BigUn81]

Ok, this is probably a dumb question but where are the flank feathers located on the bird? I'm new to all of this so I've been more concerned with where I can the most meat off of a duck or goose in the past.

[Redge]

They are on the flank! I just couldn't help myself Bigun! They are on the outside hip of the duck, or between there and where the ribs start. Started to post an image but i am not sure of the rules on that. Just google up a bird anatomy drawing for a better idea.

[BigUn81]

Ha, thanks! I don't feel quite so dumb now. I just went online and looked at mallard feathers people were selling and found something close on the bird and started pulling and cutting and I think I may have actually found the right place. I also took some off the back towards it's butt, that is some pretty stuff to me. Can I tie with the speculum on the wing? That purple/green is gorgeous.

[skiptomylu]

LOL, sorry had to smile at that. Yes the flank is the sides. I can tell you have never been in the military, LOL! Otherwise you would have learned a lot of commands like Left Flank, Right Flank and so on. Look at the soft feathers most. You could pull the barbules off some of the stiffer feathers if you wanted to make a short tail. Also yes. Think the tail feathers on a Mallard sould be great! If I knew how to collect the CDC I would tell you, but I am just not good at finding them, but would be near the oil glands and very thin feathers, but use a lot if fly tying and could also tie a jig with them if you want, but needs to probably a small jig.

forgot to add if you get any geese the CDC is bigger and better!

[BigUn81]

Ok, now I feel dumb. Flank definitely makes more sense when I think of it that way. One more dumb question and then I'll stop, I promise. What is CDC?