Dark laquered turkey tails?

[garetjax 0]

I am in the process of making some Kaufmann stonflies, but was wondering if you guys laquered your own tails, or bought them? If you do laquer your own, how do you it? And if you buy them, where do you go to get them?

[Bugsy 0]

At one time I tied my K-Mann Stones with treated turkey tail. I used vinyl cement, inexpensive and easily obtained in stores. Goop would probably work well too. I have also used Krylon Fixatif, but it doesn't hold up as well on flies that spend their time tumbling on the bottom of a river.

 

Anymore, I mostly use swiss straw. It's cheap, tough, and I don't have to fuss with adhesives. Sure, it lacks the mottling, but it does the job equally well. If you think it makes a difference, you could mottle the swiss straw with markers.

 

Check HERE and HERE to see for yourself.

 

If you use turkey, I don't know if it really matters how you treat the feathers; they're gonna get banged around and torn up in the process.

[Joe Hard 0]

You could spay the feather with super 77 spray adhesive. Or coat each slip with flexament. I usually coat tied in shell cases with head cement a few times, or Sally Hansen's hard as nails. Anything simmilar would work, and drop of epoxy, will make it real strong

[garetjax 0]

At one time I tied my K-Mann Stones with treated turkey tail. I used vinyl cement, inexpensive and easily obtained in stores. Goop would probably work well too. I have also used Krylon Fixatif, but it doesn't hold up as well on flies that spend their time tumbling on the bottom of a river.

 

Anymore, I mostly use swiss straw. It's cheap, tough, and I don't have to fuss with adhesives. Sure, it lacks the mottling, but it does the job equally well. If you think it makes a difference, you could mottle the swiss straw with markers.

 

Check HERE and HERE to see for yourself.

 

If you use turkey, I don't know if it really matters how you treat the feathers; they're gonna get banged around and torn up in the process.

I was told that swiss straw works equally as well as turkey tails do. Unfortunately, neither Bass Pro or Gander Mountain had any. Nice flies, by the way. They look really good. Can you tell me how you made your dubbing to obtain the different colors? Is that a Kaufmann Blend from Wapsi, or one of your own making? If it is, could you explain in detail how to do it? =)

[garetjax 0]

You could spay the feather with super 77 spray adhesive. Or coat each slip with flexament. I usually coat tied in shell cases with head cement a few times, or Sally Hansen's hard as nails. Anything simmilar would work, and drop of epoxy, will make it real strong

Thanks for the reply! When you say coat each slip with flexament, do you mean both sides or just one side? If it's just one side, which side is it? Also, do you coat the slips before removing them from the quill, or do you coat the slips once they are installed on the fly? I apologize for having you elaborate, but I am quite new at this still and want to be sure that I do this right.

[day5 0]

I use flex seal. I put a glop on and smooth it out with my fingers.

[billb 0]

I've used Krylon, but it hasn't toughened up the feathers as much as I'd like, so I'll try the approaches other folks have suggested in this thread.

 

Bill

[flykid 0]

I coat mine with flexament. I coat the whole feather at once. I don't know if it matters what side you coat since it seems to saturate pretty well.

[stonefly1 0]

I have also used flexament for coating feathers when needed. Works well for me.

[garetjax 0]

Thanks for the reply guys. About how quick does the flexament take to dry completely on the feather before applying it to the hook?

[Bugsy 0]

Can you tell me how you made your dubbing to obtain the different colors? Is that a Kaufmann Blend from Wapsi, or one of your own making? If it is, could you explain in detail how to do it? =)

 

Thanks for the compliment, garetjax. It is indeed the pre-blended Kaufmann dubbing. The recipe for mixing the dubbing yourself is readily available. I just haven't had the need to blend my own to date.

 

[Guest]

Do you have a different link to your flies??? All I got was the sites web page.

[Redwings1 0]

I just use Flexament with a brush on the back.

[garetjax 0]

Do you have a different link to your flies??? All I got was the sites web page.

Check out this link for Eric's nymph flies: LINK 1. I had the same problem as you did with his links, so had to manipulate them a bit to get them to work. To see all of his flies, check out the following link: LINK 2.

[Bugsy 0]

Sorry guys. I incorrectly posted the links. Should be okay now.

 

garetjax, thanks for helping out...and you too, Fatman, for bringing this to my attention. :cheers:

 

No telling how long I might have kept doing this.