Mike, LOL I'm glad someone is paying attention. I have deer and moose patches where 10% of the hollow body hairs end up with sharp, non-hollow, black tips from 1/2" to 3/4" long. They end up functioning like guard hairs, but they are not really, at least in my book. I have not found them on elk yet.
I cut a hank of hair off the hide like I would be spinning a muddler. But I grasp the very end of the tips and pull out a half dozen of these dual-diameter hairs. I group and stack them and then cut most of the hollow bases off and tie the 6 or so fibers to the shank of the hook like I would do feather quill tails. The hollow bases are a good anchor and the tips are fine and stiff and float well with a little floatant, plus they are very durable. At one time I even tried hackling dry flies with these. It worked, but was of no real advantage for the extra effort. Since Dr. Whiting came out with his Coq de Leon tailing packs, I've replaced the moose and deer with those, and love the performance and look. I'm re-arranging my fly room and it is a monumental task, but it should cut the clutter down to half and make it easier to find everything. Everything will be labeled, so if I put everything back where it's supposed to be, I'll be able to remember where to find things, which I can't do now. Everything was a search and thus a lot of time was wasted just looking for something. When I find these patches, I'll take a pic and post it. I did find a cape that was moth infested, but they were contained in the zipped bag, and I was thankful for that. They had about eaten the whole cape. Everything is getting a few moth crystals for good measure. I wonder if it's head cement plus moth crystals that spawned Dr. D and Buggs. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Bliss To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 6:08 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Royal Coachman Dry Fly's Wings - what are they? Oh, oh so is it moose quill or goose quill. Don, I am the last person to make fun of typing mistake if that is what it is. I just thought there was something out there I had not heard about. Mike On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 3:03 PM, Allan Fish <[email protected]> wrote: NAW. Mike. It's from one of the feathers On 11/5/12 8:00 PM, Michael Bliss wrote: Don, I will expose my ignorance, what is a moose quill? Where is it on the moose? Is it the mane? Mike On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Don Ordes <[email protected]> wrote: Pete, I also tie mine with stiff moose quill tails- much more durable and floatable than pheasant crest. The kip wings take a lot of floatant and thus ride high and are very visable on rough western rivers & waters. This is what Lee Wulff had in mind. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Gramp To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, November 05, 2012 1:32 PM Subject: [VFB] Royal Coachman Dry Fly's Wings - what are they? So I have the day off and when I sat down at my vise to tie up 6 dozen Royal Coachmen dry flies in various sizes to restock my nearly empty flyboxes, I thought I knew the pattern by heart. Then I glanced over at the "Benchside Reference" and on the cover is what looks to be a royal coachman with calf tail wings... not with the duck quill slip wings that I originally thought. I tried looking up the pattern on google and in YouTube, but what I found was that about half of the recipes and/or pictures said upright quill wings, and the other half said calf tail upright. So I'm curious, what should the wings be for this pattern? I'm sure that either would work for catching trout, but I'm curious what the original pattern called for. (the calf tail wings remind me more of a Wulff than a Coachman, for what it is worth, but what do I know) For such a famous pattern, you would think that the recipe would be the same from one website source to another, but that's not what I found. Any help would be great! -Pete -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- Mike Bliss Aloha from Hawaii -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- Allan Fish Greenwood, IN [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- Mike Bliss Aloha from Hawaii -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com
