Fly tying
 

I'm just getting into fly tying, does anyone hunt grouse and save anything to tie flys with? What parts? Any tips would help.

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In the winter, I brake for dead squirrels (and carry a pair of tin snips at all times).

I save the tails from pheasants, and have also used cat fur as dubbing with decent results.

I see nobody actually answered your question re grouse feathers! Save the wings for sure, some good material there for tying soft hackle wet flies.

The hackles that stand up on their head are great for wet flys

Grouse feathers are great for fly tying! The shoulders feathers are perfect for soft hackles flies, soft and well marked. The main feathers on the wings would be great for wet fly wings, similar use as pheasant primary wing feathers. And the tails would also be great as body material to wind around the hook. or as wings on wets.

Loads if good feathers!

Thanks everyone. Now I just need to know what I'm doing. Haha

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Youtube is a great way to learn.Stillwaters gurus such as Brian Chan,Phil Rowley,Bcflyguys etc.

You can use every feather if you choose

It’s fly tying and you are only limited by your imagination when it comes to the materials you choose to use

My flying tying kit is very large compared to most and consists of fur from trapping, feathers/hair from hunting, trim from a taxidermist friend(some interesting stuff I bet most will never have do to traveling hunters), random stuff repurposed from dollar stores and random finds, and standard sources

You can choose to limit yourself with general patterns and materials or get creative

Last time I shot a porcupine I wondered if their hair was useful for fly tying.

Porcupine quills can make nice extended bodies for Mayfly patterns.

I have to ask: Why did you shoot a porcupine?

Porcupines are a problem if you have cows. They have a tendency to sniff the porcupine

X2
One of the ranchers whose land we hunt on asks us to shoot any porcupine we see. Their constantly getting quills in the dogs and the cows.

Ouch, fair enough then.

Because it was easier than beating it to death with a curling broom...

Between the trees they kill and the animals they injure porcupines are "shoot on sight" around here.

Take the fly tying course at Fish Tales.

Best way to start is with good knowledge of key tying principles.

Alberta Flys
 

When I lived in the east and fished the east coast, I tyed all kinds of patterns, took courses, the whole bit.
Since arriving here, I tie only elk hair caddis and elk hair grasshoppers. Have fun.

I know I'm getting off base with the original post but I'm on the side of the porcupines. I'm seen enough road kill, which along with shootings, must make them a near endangered species.

Like you Dewey, there must be some value in the little critters. They are natural tree pruners, the fallen limbs provide cover for other species, and they like to eat outhouses, which most AO members get annoyed at but their better halves like. :sHa_shakeshout:

In northern Alberta, the only ones I tie (well, I tied enough 4 or so years ago and haven’t since) are Clousers for walleye and pike. So whitetail tail is all I use, for the most part. I did come up with a few other patterns myself for pike and they worked pretty great, but those were more like one-off type of things, some of which included some feather.

Jezus, give it a rest. Didn't you learn when the mods deleted all your posts?

Highlighted trees as well. I raise hardy fruit trees as another hobby. One long winter a single porcupine "girdled" half a dozen fruit trees a wounded a handful of others. Girdle is where the porcupine strips the bark off right around the entire diameter of a tree. Sometimes a lot more... And that destroys the circulatory system and thus kills the tree. If anyone who has started a tree from a sapling only to have it 5-7 years later killed in one single outing of a porcupine...
Yep, easy to bring the gun out at that point.

For those who are interested though,
Instead I've practiced adding a wire fence around each tree that are typically targeted. This is stronger wire rolls, 4 feet tall, that you would use for something like stucco. Strong enough to stand in a complete circle around a tree, easy enough to move and put back when needed and small enough space between the wire to keep out the biggest culprits. Afterall there are deers as well that will not kill a tree but happy to take the blossums off all your fruit trees and give it a real unneeded pruning. I.e. you can't shoot them all so came up with something better.