turkey fans

[luvabug 0]

I had a friend bring me two turkey fans yesterday - one is a local gobbler and the other is a rio from texas. He also included a wing. Is it best to keep the whole fan (will need to dry out) or indiviual feathers? Are the wings usable? These feathers are beautiful - but don't want to store ones that aren't usable.

[Flyfisher13 0]

I am fairly new at this, I have only been tying for about 4 and half years now but my husband has been tying for a long time. We have complete turkey fans that we use from time to time. He dries ours with some kind of salt and we hang them on our corkboard or in our fly tying room on the wall which now is our garage. After they are dried good, we either leave them hanging or put them in ziplock baggie with some cedar chips. To answer your question, yes the entire fan can be used just determines what you are tying. Hope this helps a little.

[Drath 0]

Tail feathers can be used for a variety of things and biots can be found on the feathers from the leading edge of the wing. They make good segmented bodies but are a bit bigger than goose biots.

Have fun with ‘em. You’ll find lots of uses.

 

-D

 

[utyer 0]

Turkey fans have lots of uses. I have one complete fan, and a wing set, and I am waiting on 2 more. I use them in many different ways.

 

Segments of the feathers from each side of the central feathers, are used in Salmon Fly wings, and wet fly wings. Matching up segments from the tail feathers further out from the center three or 4 will yeild usable wings on flies. The fibers can be used the same way pheasant tails are used in nymphs. Even the shorter underfeathers in the tail can be used as wings, or wrapped. White tipped feathers are aslo good for Salmon fly wing segments, and on some wet flies. Then the sections can be used as shell backs, and wing cases. The fibers can be tied into knotted legs for hoppers and other patterns.

 

The wing quills are in 2 types, the primary flight quills (pointier and more black and white barred) are good for biot bodies or tailing of prince type nymphs. The secondaries (more rounded, and more speckled) are great for wings on wet flies and salmon flies. The individual fibers can be wrapped again as herl bodies. The quills should be cut from the wings and matches up from the left and right wings. Keep the matched feathers together.

 

I usually cut my tail feathers from the fan and store in zip lock bags. A four day old turkey carcas will drive you from your house from the smell. Its not a good idea to keep feathers on the meat.

 

Once you have your feathers loose, give them a bath in dish washing liquid to remove any blood and dirt. Stroke the feathers gently back to shape as they dry. Then cook them in the microwave for 15 seconds twice. Then store in a zip lock bag with mothballs.

[flykid 0]

Yep, you can use all those feathers. Really, you can use any feather off of any bird that you want. You just need to be creative in how you use it.

[JSzymczyk 0]

The tail feathers should be paired up, just like the wing feathers. In other words, the two outermost feathers make a matched pair, then the next pair (one from the left, one from the right) on up to the very middle pair. I also was given two gobbler tails and two sets of wings this spring. I paired off all the tail and secondary flight feathers. If you have any tail feathers that are broken or whatever, use those for wing cases on nymphs. Matched slips of the tail feathers with good maculation make great wet fly wings, and IMO the best looking muddler minnow wings. I don't know if there is an "unusable" feather anywhere on a wild turkey!! Hopefully next year I'll shoot one for myself...