Pete, When you SHOP for goose biots, consider the following: 1. Goose biots are taken from the lead edge of the first 4 or 5 wing tip flight feathers.
2. The first one, the lead feather, has the best quality and toughest biots. You'll recognize this feather, as the quills are very compressed against the barb on the lead edge. As you move to secondaries, the lead edge of the feather gets wider, and the biots are not as stiff or as tough. 3. The rest are useable, but not as tough as the lead feather. Also, the cupping of the bottom of the barb is more pronounced in the secondaries, as is the left/right root contour. 4. Dying quality differs between distributers- some cook too hot and the quills are brittle. Check by knotting. 5. Buy quills for the type fly you are tying. If you buy whole stripped biots, check each one for the type of feathers you desire by fanning it out, just as you would a hackle. For instance- if you're going to make stonefly legs with knotted biots, pick though the stock in the color you want and look for the longest and toughest biots. Tail fibers and antenna.are made from biots right at the tips, so get some feathers with long thin tips. Your fly shop must allow you to open the bags to pick out the type you need, or you're just taking a chance. 6. The contour of the biots on a stripped quill change from the base to the tips, and from the lead feather to the secondaries. They are short and wide at the base, and progress to long and narrow towards the tips. There are lefts and rights, but it's hard to find L/R matches in store bags, and some biots, especially on the outside third of the feather, are symetrical enough that it doesn't matter, especially on the lead feather. 7. If you're going to rib fly bodies with quills, I suggest turkey biots instead of goose. Hope this helps. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2004 10:29 AM Subject: [VFB] Regarding the Material Question > > Hey all, > > I asked, and oh did I receive... The "canadian goose" stuff mentioned previously is just a fancy way of saying a goose biot that comes from a canadian goose. Now all i have to do is FIND a canadian goose who's willing to part with some biots... LOL I can't seem to find any sellers online, but it looks similar to a "normal" goose biot, in my opinion - I may just use that. > > Pete > > ________________________________________________________________ > The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! > Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! > Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!
