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smellycat

mallard flank vs wing

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Mallard flank has many uses:

-rolled and divided as Catskill-style dry fly wings

-flat as in Hornberg wings

-clumped for the beard of a wet fly, the wingpads of an emerger or the legs of a nymph

-a few fibers can be used as a tail.

-wrapped as a collar on a wet or dry fly

 

Mallard wings are used almost exclusively for making wet fly wings. For this you need slips from matched primary or secondary feathers (one from each wing -L and R.) The smokey-grey primaries are used in the wings of a great many traditional wet flies (BWO, Black Gnat, Blue Dun, Leadwing Coachman,....) The beautiful "blues" (wing secondaries from the drake) are used in the Bloody Butcher, while the white-tipped secondaries are found in the McGinty.

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thank you for such a detailed explanation. After finding that out I may just have to buy both...just like every thing else, because you know you can't buy just one color of anything.

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