Jungle cock nails or alternatives

[Fry Flier 0]

I decided to move on over to the darker side of tying and want to expand on my tying for pleasure as well as fish.

 

Is there a way to buy JC nails in mini packs and are they graded? Is there a JC nail substitute that would be more advantages for a starter to tie up his or her first few flies with without feeling guilty about ruining good JC?

 

Beating this around here since none of this is available to me without a 2-3 hour drive and who knows better then the people here that uses these products.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Gary you can buy small packs of JC nails off ebay, but I would HIGHLY suggest you dont buy those. I bought a few packs of the nails off ebay back in the summer and out of 200 feathers I could use maybe 15-20 of them at the most. I dont mind fixing some split feathers, but these were just so bad you really couldnt even fix them

 

Mike (maddog48) gave me a link to a guy that sells some good quaily nails in small packs for a good price so Pm him and ask him for that link because I cant seem to find it right now or I would give it to ya.

[Guest]

Unfortunately, there isn't any substitute for JC. The plastic things are just horrible and I would never consider putting one on a fly. You can, however, use feathers of other birds instead of JC. A Guinea feather stripped and burned to leave only one white dot has been used, as has a black and white barred Wood Duck slip.

 

Don't buy packs of JC from ebay. I've seen some that are so bad, they barely looks like JC. There isn't any way around it, you get what you pay for, so if you're going to use Jungle Cock you're going to buy a neck sooner or later. If you can, buy directly from a breeder it will cost less and it will be graded correctly. Distributors and fly shops have been known to apply "grade inflation" so that they can get top dollar for an inferior cape. I've been asked to leave a couple of shops after pointing out that their JC capes were crap even though the package said they were "Superior" grade.

 

Here is the IP address of the breeder I buy from:

 

Fishermen's Feathers

[Steeldrifter 0]

The plastic things are just horrible and I would never consider putting one on a fly.

 

 

Totally agree with you Paul. I made the mistake of buying two sheets of those a few months ago. Man was the ever a bad decision, they looked terriable :sick: . Thankfully I only wasted a couple bucks on them.

[phg 0]

Current exchange rate, 75 pounds comes to about $150. Not bad for a "Super Quality Cape," but what about shipping? Any problems with customs? Taxes? etc.?

[Fry Flier 0]

Thanks people I really appreciate the info that you have given me I will start chasing down these suggestions.

[maddog48 0]

Gary ... try Theriault Flies in Patten, Maine. It's a little mom and pop type place.

 

http://www.theriaultflies.com/

 

The e-mail address and phone number's listed there. If you can't get through, PM me again and I'll see if I can find some more of my addresses.

 

 

Mike

[Fry Flier 0]

Thanks Mike, I will see what I can do.

[ted patlen 0]

if you're going to fish with them...there are two very usefull methods you can use for really split nails or those huge wide ones...

 

french polish, an action in which you pull the split nail throught your finger tips that are coated with varnish (originally) but hard as nails works as well...or take those really wide big ones and split them in half and use one nail for one fly...

 

 

agin these are for fishing the bad nails...

[Fry Flier 0]

Gary ... try Theriault Flies in Patten, Maine. It's a little mom and pop type place.

 

http://www.theriaultflies.com/

 

The e-mail address and phone number's listed there. If you can't get through, PM me again and I'll see if I can find some more of my addresses.

 

 

Mike

Dropped them a line last night.

[Sean Juan 0]

Another economical way to buy them is to find a guy who needs different sizes than you. I bought a cape with a guy from the internet once he wanted the small feathers - I wanted the big ones for saltwater worked out pretty well.

[Linesides 0]

Tying up some saltwater patterns that call for JC eyes, the imitation work fine. being ripped through the water blues and stripers don't seem to notice the quality.

 

[Harold Ray 0]

Theriault Flies in Patten, Maine

 

That is an interesting site. The folks produce everything or nearly everything themselves it sounds like.

[Fry Flier 0]

They seem to be well thought of by a few people that I know and I have already been contacted by them. I will let you know how I make out.

Thanks to all for the help.

[Fry Flier 0]

Guess I am looking for another source, just rec'd. an email from http://www.theriaultflies.com stating that they cannot ship to Canada.

 

Oh well..........................................................