Tying Feathers Question

I don't really know how to tye a feather to a jig.My question is:
How do you cut the feather to get it to look like hairs,like you guys all seem to do.I see the feather,look at the quill then it goes up to the tip and the quill disappears.I usually cut it on the quill a little so I can tye it to the hook shank,the quill that is.Do you cut horizontal to the quill and just tye the fluffy stuff?As you can see,I just use the whole end,lol.Non of yours look that way.Enlighten me.I've watched videos and they just throw the feather down and start tying.I've never seen HOW they prepared thier feather.I also know that there are a million kind of feathers that you use.Mine are all like the one in the picture,maribou I think.

Get the ends even on one side, pinch off how much you need for your jig, and pull away from the stem. The top 1/4 or so of most feathers is too small except for 1/64th and smaller jigs IMO. It does them pretty nice, but you still should cut off a 1/2" or so of the tip.

Thank you smoothlures,I was going to try that,but,seemed like all the feathers would go on the table,lol.Got one coming up.Thank you.

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Originally Posted by azslabber

Thank you smoothlures,I was going to try that,but,seemed like all the feathers would go on the table,lol.Got one coming up.Thank you.

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Don't try to stack them, get all the ends together before you pinch them and pull them off. Then trim the butt ends however long you want then tie 'em in.

Make sure you start your thread first. ;)

I like it.Now I have to go and tie one of these grey or chartruse feathers to everything.lol.Same everything.Looks so much better.See,learn something new everyday,if you want to.

There ya go AZ!

Ronny boy,I've got a ton of RonDon's to do,lol.Thanks.

Yes I pull the barbules off almost all my marabou and just lay it down and stack it until I get as much as I want. I will not leave a stem in unless it's so thin that it will not hurt the action. After I pick it up I cut the end I pulled off to get the length I want and tie it in.

Skip

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Originally Posted by azslabber

Ronny boy,I've got a ton of RonDon's to do,lol.Thanks.

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I figured all those big mouths had eaten all those by now! I'll do you a favor and not show you a pic of the detail on some 1/8 and 3/16 fish heads.;)

I like these feathers now,lol.I've had this bag of malibou since JJJ sent it to me as trade for that Boobie Head jig mold way back when,lol.Saw some tiny shad fry,so here's the smallest I've ever tied,that was'nt "junk",lol.Like a size 10 or 12 hook on a 1/80 brass minnowhead.Chartruse malibou and yellow floresent thread.Gonna tye a grey one the same way.Got to catch a fish someway.

--Something happened,lol.Don't understand why a pic can get too big when it's in the same place and the same settings on camera,Oh well.

Done tying feathers now.Trying to match the shad fry.Hope these will work.

You got some good advice here and your results show that you listened, learned, and applied the knowledge. Nice results.

If you really want to get fancy try palmering them. It is like wrapping hackle but you do it to the marabou. Once it is all palmered you hold the feathers down and tie them down so they stay back or you don't to leave them really fluffy and full looking. This buries the stem under the chenille and can make a huge fluffy tail using all the marabou on each quill. If you want short inside start at the top, long outside, start from the bottom of the feather. Both ways give unique looks to a jig and changes the action, sometimes a lot more than you might expect.

I will have to see if I can tie some up later, maybe 6-8 different ways to show the differences.

You lost me fish,lol.I just learned how to tie a feather the correct way about 3 hours ago.Palmering sounds like a trick to me right now.Ha.

Is easy, tie the feather in, grab the end with hackle plier and wrap it wround the hook. The tough part is getting used to pulling the feathers down for each wrap to get it to full and fluffy.

LOL,can't even find slipring pliars.Some day.Tell me this,while we are talking about feathers.
I have a bag of skinny neck hackle feathers with some very cool designs and circles in them.They are fatter at the quill end.Do you just tie the skinny cool looking end,whole on the jig?Like one feather on each side of the hook shank.

Not to be a wise guy, but that's up to you. Most hackle ties that I do have one feather tied to the shank with the curl towards the bend of the hook. Until I saw Skips little video I used jig heads with a barb and collar. Much easier to tie to the shank of the hook and a slimmer profile too. I tied some small hen hackle feathers like you said, with one on each side. They worked fine and caught fish. Some I tied with the feathers curling away from each other, some toward each other and sandwiching the hook. Didn't see much difference in the catch ability of them.
The maribou changes you made look great. Now before you tie on any feathers, tie in some angel hair or a little flash. Angel hair flows with the 'bou and works well. You just keep getting better.....

No where to go but up,Skeet,lol.Thanks,just tied one of RonDon's Ultra Minnow Roadrunners with it.What a differance.Got to remember the flash.

I have to tie every one of my heads before 3:00 am tomorrow,lol.At least the ones that I have been using.Got lots of work to do.I thank each and every one of you guys for teaching me something.All of your advise was right spot on.Thanks.

I'm with Skeet, there isn't 1,000 plus ways to tie just because they are all "right". Figure out what works, what you like to tie and go with it. I tie for so many species and I find using a number of different ways is what I want and what works. Palmered hackle and marabou work great for salmon and steelhead, torn off and tied for trout and panfish, and simply cut with the barb in tact for ocean fishing. I will aslo mix and match depending on what I tie and what look and action I want. Have fun with it, is the only way it is worth tying at all.

This is a palmered marabou blood quill, It is over 3 inches wide on a 1/16 jig head. Action is awesome on this and profile is huge.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../Palmered1.jpg
This one is using the tips only simply pulling the marabou up to the end and clipping them off. Tips are very even and it is a stiff tie in that won't move much.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2..._all/Tips1.jpg
This one I stripped off the marabou and tied it in on both top and bottom. This moves a little more than the tips and have a little more action in the water but not too much.
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2.../Stripped1.jpg

It is hard to tell the difference between the last 2 but the tips is a lot more even and the feathers are a lot stiffer and sparce where the stripped on has a lot more body to the feathers and is a little fuller using as close to the same amounts as I could manage.

I don't understand the whole palmered thing.Really!

YouTube - Palmering Hackle Demo with Jay Nicholas

To get it all in the front or back you just do the same thing but pull back the feather and wrap close instead all the way down or up the shank.

Thanks fish.I watched the video.I put a jig in the vise while watching it.I tied it kinda quick,so don't laugh.Of course I did it backwards.But,I know what you are talking about now.It's not in the chinese language any more.LOL.Now I see why you need hackle pliars.

I tried it with a malibou feather and fixed it up I think,lol.

Hey you coming along just great!

Important thing said above about right and wrong way to tie. If it works for you then it's fine. When I started tying jigs with hackle I saw guys say I use to tips or I use 3 tips. I didn't want to do what they did and when I use multiple tips they just wouldn't behave the way I wanted them to. I had never seen anyone do what I do and when I tried it I like it even better than others so that is how I went at some point and don't want to go back. I also came up with making my little V's to use more of each feather making better use with less waste and on top of that all the little individual barbules stand alone and almost look like hair and I thought much better so that is how it came to be that I had my own tail tying method.

One thing I know lot of guys don't like long tails and I do (my customers will gladly tell you how well this catches fish. Then there is the make it thin so it has more action, but we added action when we pulled off the feathers to tie in like this so I wouldn't listed to people without trying it your self on the water. I have never had a problem with long and thick marabou tails. I catch all the fish I want to and so do my customers. It's mostly a head thing and why try anything different if we are going to listen to all the rules of what it is supposed to be?

Nice work and it will get better,
Skip

Been making a lot of feathers now.Something totally new to do.Heck,I even ordered some new colors,being I only had grey and chartruse,lol.Now I've got about 50 jigs to make,all the heads that I used to tye kip to can now be made into feathers.I need a bigger tackle box.

Looking GOOD!!!

I liked that palmered bushy black jig that fish4all tyed.This is a weird color.I found a bag of thick maribou that someone had given me in some weird colors,lol.I call it "Navajo Thunder" for the Indians that live around here and thier favorite stone,lol.