Use for porcupine quills or hairs

[larena 0]

Has anybody out there ever used porcupine parts for tying flies?

I was given a skinned porcupine and now I need to tie up some

flies. Any ideas?

[rockworm 0]

larena

 

Vince Marinaro used porcupine quills as extended bodies on mayflies. The smaller quills (when dyed) also make excellent tails on stonefly nymphs. The quills are quite buoyant and I find they dye very well. I will add links to a couple of photos. There are also guard hairs in the porcupine skin which are very useful in making antennae, legs, and tails. They are much used by those tying realistic flies. (Send me a PM if you have more guard hairs than you can use.)

 

Green Drake Spinner:

http://fishermonk.com/gif/artificials/xbs1096.gif

 

Isonychia Spinner:

http://fishermonk.com/gif/artificials/xbs1097.gif

 

Hendrickson Spinner:

http://fishermonk.com/gif/artificials/xbs1098.gif

[j74snook 0]

personally I have only used quills for strike indicators on spin gear.

[larena 0]

Thanks for the URLs rockworm. Very interesting flies. How would you go about making these flies? Do they split the quill, thread it over the hook or just tie it on top? I guess I would need another view to figure it out . . . I'm just a little slow tonight.

 

 

[rockworm 0]

larena

 

After the tails have been attached, the extended body is lashed on the top of the hook. The quill actually deforms to fit the hook if done right. PM me and I will send you tying instructions.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

they also make great legs on realistics

[spiaailtli 0]

they also make great legs on realistics

 

 

This is what I do with them.

 

 

[spiaailtli 0]

a few more

 

 

[BruceC 0]

The guard hairs make nice antennas and the smaller, softer quills make excellent stonefly nymph tails.

 

Bruce

[larena 0]

 

 

Thanks for the pictures spiaailtli. Great flies. How do you work with the quills?

Any recipes for these flies that you are willing to share?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a few more

 

 

 

[spiaailtli 0]

Thanks for the pictures spiaailtli. Great flies. How do you work with the quills?

Any recipes for these flies that you are willing to share?

 

I returned your PM, if that isn't what you were after let me know. All of these were just thrown together with whatever I had on hand at the time.

 

Let me see if I can remember.

 

The hooks are going to be Mustad standard dry fly hooks on the two you quoted. Very rarely do I ever use anything else. They're cheap.

 

Back then I was using Danville 70 and it appears it was light brown. (sorry)

 

The tail on one is pheasant barbs and the other (split tail) was the ends cut off of two porky quills. The tips of the quills are small and normally black.

 

It looks like hackle tips for wings on one that I got from some cheap hackle purchased at Sportsmans Warehouse. The second is sparkle dub that was tied figure 8 style, purchased from the same store. You can hackle the flies with whatever you have on hand that is proper size. I used hackle someone sent me about a year ago. I believe it is from a Whiting Dun neck.

 

Nothing special required working with the quills. They came that color and many colors are available. Just tie the small end and wrap. That helps with the tapered look because the quills get thicker and wider. I did cut about an inch off the small end because the tips wanted to break when starting the wrap. Remove the end solved the problem.

 

The dubing was from a multi pack that had about 8 or 10 different colors in it, again nothing special.

 

Most of the time I just grab stuff and tie in on the hook to see what works and what doesn't. I catch heck for it sometimes on other boards.