Jungle Cock Help

[thursthouse 0]

Hi All,

 

I received a Jungle Cock cape for Christmas (Which I had asked for but, admittedly, know very little about). I'm a bit concerned about the quality, but again, am unsure of what I am looking for.

 

It appears to me that virtually every nail would need to be repaired on this cape and the splits appear to be quite deep. While I was fully prepared to be repairing some nails on any cape that I received, it appears to me that this one might not be worth my time. I'm not attempting to tie museum quality flies, but would like to tie decent quality flies and don't want to have money wasted on a poor product.

 

I'm simply looking for advice if the attached cape is worth $75 (and is this quality indicative of this price range) or should I have it returned?

 

Thank you in advance!

[johnnyquahog 0]

The larger sizes surely look beat up. Can't see if the same holds tru through the smaller sizes. A good indication of what to expect for your dollar is to go to ebay and look through the sold JC capes and compare photos.

[mikechell 0]

Steam it and run a micro fiber cloth over the freshly steamed cape. If it still looks like that ... Attempt the return and replacement.

[Piker20 0]

The larger nails often look poor. If you are tying trout size flies up to size 1 hooks then you are unlikely to use the large eyes. So it appears to be a well feathered cape and if the smaller nails are good I'd go with it.

Use the split ones to tie buzzer cheeks or cheeks on smaller flies where a full nail is too much.

 

If you are only tying for the fish then I'm not convinced JC is needed at all. Did you get your monies worth? Awkward to say. I buy mine from a breeder here in UK and his A grade is definitely better than that but would cost $90+ postage and any tax on top.

[flytire 0]

double post

[flytire 0]

fix the eyes like davie mcphail does

 

[rstaight 0]

I have heard of using head cement on the backside of the feather to close splits.

[ihang10 0]

I have a cape with split nails and use fray check (tear mender) with decent results. Put it on with a brush or I'll put the fray check on my thumb and pull the nail through my thumb and index finger. Sometimes that "narrows" or compresses the nail too much though. YMMV.

[whatfly 0]

Right on the edge, would be my guess. Personally because of the split nails and the colors, I would think this is more like a $50-60 cape, than a $75 one, but they are pretty rare and expensive in the US, so the price is not beyond reason (check ebay as suggested). Better capes with few splits and better colors would be twice or more the price, so unless you really want to spend some money on a better cape, you might not be able to do much better in your price range. JC has very limited applications, so if it were me, I'd trade it in on a nice Whiting dry fly saddle, or something similar that I would use a lot more.

[thursthouse 0]

Thank you all for the help and advice - truly appreciate it

[fishinguy 0]

A More in focus pic of the top of the Cape may provide more accurate insight.

[hairwing 0]

Ah !!! lots of splits in that cape.....but just think, when you repair most of them you will have become an "expert" on JC eye repair. You'll be able to do a vid .

[SilverCreek 0]

Maybe it is the photos but, the colors of the nails look washed out to me. Since coloration is what I look for first, my question is whether the cape is worth repairing.

 

If you want to repair it:

 

http://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/jungle-cock-repair