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Harvesting wild game materials for fly tying?

Sheltowee

Sheltowee

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Having only dabbled in it previously, I have now been very firmly bitten by the fly fishing bug. I'm not quite ready to tie my own flies just yet but I'd like to pass along some tying materials from any elk/deer/pronghorn/birds that I take to a couple of my flyfishing mentors. I dropped off a half trashbag full of pheasant feathers to my neighborhood fly shop back this winter. What portions of the fur are ideal for fly tying-- feel like I've seen elk rump and manes commonly used-- and how do y'all recommend skinning those out and preserving?

Obligatory pic of an Arkansas River cuttbow below.

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Just cut off the piece you want, salt it a bit on the hide side and let it dry out. Thats about all you need to do. You could brush it to get some of the underfur out but I don't bother and just pick it out as I am cutting off a piece to put on the fly. I have pieces of hide I saved off of animals over 10 years ago this way.

I use all portions depending on the color and type of fur I want for the specific fly. For example neck hair on an elk is darker but thinner and doesn't float as well.
 
I do, or did (don't a much as I did about 5 years ago) keep capes off of ringnecks and huns. The belly hair off of deer species are supposedly best for tying because they are coarse and more hollow, plus the tails for bucktail. I know you can't really use cottontails for hares masks because they aren't a true hare, but maybe jack rabbit or snowshoe fur is good?
 
Stone_Ice_1 said:
Just cut off the piece you want, salt it a bit on the hide side and let it dry out. Thats about all you need to do. You could brush it to get some of the underfur out but I don't bother and just pick it out as I am cutting off a piece to put on the fly. I have pieces of hide I saved off of animals over 10 years ago this way.

I use all portions depending on the color and type of fur I want for the specific fly. For example neck hair on an elk is darker but thinner and doesn't float as well.
Click to expand...
Borax will neutralize some of the fat on bird capes as well. Pheasant and hun skin is so thin that fleshing is a challenge. The orvis podcast definitely used to have to some good tips on harvest, preservation, and uses.
 
huntnpack said:
Borax will neutralize some of the fat on bird capes as well. Pheasant and hun skin is so thin that fleshing is a challenge. The orvis podcast definitely used to have to some good tips on harvest, preservation, and uses.
Click to expand...
Interesting, I'll have to check that pod out. Thanks!
 
The more you tie, the more you kinda just know what you can and can't use/substitute, but I started with pheasant capes and jack gartside's stuff. https://www.jackgartside.com/art_pheasant_feathers.htm

It pays off sometimes, several years ago a friend wanted a set of flies tied completely from a couple pheasants he had. I tied a couple small boxes of, frankly, not very practical flies for him.

I hadn't talked to him for quite a while, but he called last week, and had to bail on a float trip on the south snake. He gave me first dibs to take his place for free.
 
I don't fly fish, but several of the old timers at work did. They always liked pheasant hackles, mallard wings, wood duck flank feathers and turkey hackles.
Not sure what they tied with them, but that was the list of stuff they liked.
They always offered some flies, but I told them I usually don't have trouble matching the hatch with fatheads and crawlers.
 
Keep on said:
I don't fly fish, but several of the old timers at work did. They always liked pheasant hackles, mallard wings, wood duck flank feathers and turkey hackles.
Not sure what they tied with them, but that was the list of stuff they liked.
They always offered some flies, but I told them I usually don't have trouble matching the hatch with fatheads and crawlers.
Click to expand...
The hardest part of flyfishing has to be keeping the nightcrawler on those tiny hooks. Still haven't gotten the hang of that, yet.
 
Squirrel tails as well as fox tail fur adorn Mepps spinners, but I've always gone bare treble hook if spinning for trout. I purchased a $5 garage sale woman's coat for the fur collar, and that thing has been sitting at the back of my closet ever since.....untouched.
 
I have saved a few things for tying- a piece of elk hide for elk hair caddis, some whitetail tails for clousers, goose/duck cdc for emergers, turkey/goose wing biots, pheasant tail feathers. I have a 50/50 mix of borax and salt I put on the stuff to preserve it.
 
The coarse white belly hair on a deer is best for spinning bass bugs. Hair on the shoulder of deer and elk is finer and better for trout flies. You kinda have to know what you are looking for as the texture changes across the hide.

The eastern whitetails I have shot have nice even hair. The western ones have a lot of guard hairs and underfur that make it hard to use. YMMV.

For preparing it, I like to wash it real good in soapy water and then rinse. Squeeze the water out, comb the hair so it’s straight, and tack it to a board, fur side down, stretching as much as possible. Salt it, and when dried scrape off the salt and dried meat with a putty knife. Get the hide as thin as you can with the putty knife. Then use a box cutter to cut the hard perimeter off the piece.

I’ve done whole hides this way. If you do it right the piece will be clean and as flexible as heavy construction paper. Hair done this way is a lot easier to use than a brick-hard curly piece someone just salted.
 
Elk and deer hair, grouse feathers, turkey feathers, duck feathers, I've tied a few streamers with mt. goat hair and bear hair, and I have some sheep hide I'm going to use for a few little caddis flies, just for fun.

Just make sure to get the moisture out of the skin and put salt and/or borax on it.
 
Back when I was as into fly fishing and fly tying as I was into hunting I kept a lot of fur and feathers for flies.

Wild turkey and grouse marabou feathers from the inside of the legs and around the tail make great woolly bigger.

The little down feathers around the oil gland by the anus of teal and mallards is perfect for sulphur emergers and BWO’s That’s what CDC feathers are. ( Cul de canard.)

Elk and deer for caddis, hoppers, and bucktails.

There’s a fly that can be tied from just about any feather or fur.
 
My first ever fly fishing book was a black/white cartoon primer (Curtis Creek Manifesto) in which the author suggested that when going on a fishing adventure it’s helpful if your wife/girlfriend is blond as they could donate some hair to help tie up some flies in an emergency.
 
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