Go Back   Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum > Main Category > Fly-Fishing Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 10-05-2022, 12:56 PM
Timberwoodsman's Avatar
Timberwoodsman Timberwoodsman is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 43
Default 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.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 10-05-2022, 05:03 PM
thumper's Avatar
thumper thumper is offline
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Canmore
Posts: 4,740
Default

In the winter, I brake for dead squirrels (and carry a pair of tin snips at all times).
__________________
The world is changed by your action, not by your opinion.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 10-05-2022, 06:08 PM
dekker59 dekker59 is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Calgary, AB
Posts: 129
Default

I save the tails from pheasants, and have also used cat fur as dubbing with decent results.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 10-05-2022, 07:13 PM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1,574
Default

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.
__________________
I fish, therefore I am.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 10-05-2022, 07:15 PM
stob stob is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 1,428
Default

The hackles that stand up on their head are great for wet flys
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 10-05-2022, 08:24 PM
chucky chucky is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Calgary
Posts: 267
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberwoodsman View Post
I'm just getting into fly tying, does anyone hunt grouse and save anything to tie flys with? What parts? Any tips would help.
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!
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 10-05-2022, 09:42 PM
Timberwoodsman's Avatar
Timberwoodsman Timberwoodsman is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 43
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by chucky View Post
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

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:01 AM
tallieho tallieho is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: calgary
Posts: 1,216
Default

Youtube is a great way to learn.Stillwaters gurus such as Brian Chan,Phil Rowley,Bcflyguys etc.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:37 AM
Smoky buck Smoky buck is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 7,334
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:59 AM
Dewey Cox's Avatar
Dewey Cox Dewey Cox is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: 204
Posts: 5,397
Default

Last time I shot a porcupine I wondered if their hair was useful for fly tying.
__________________
"I like to quote my own quotes" ~ Dewey Cox
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 10-06-2022, 08:09 AM
Lornce's Avatar
Lornce Lornce is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Calgary
Posts: 2,663
Default

Porcupine quills can make nice extended bodies for Mayfly patterns.
__________________
Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten,
but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I been in a place that was less than beautiful.

My blog - casting on the waters

fishing regulations and facts on fish handling
Fishing Regulations
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:37 PM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1,574
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewey Cox View Post
Last time I shot a porcupine I wondered if their hair was useful for fly tying.
I have to ask: Why did you shoot a porcupine?
__________________
I fish, therefore I am.
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:43 PM
Smokinyotes Smokinyotes is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: onoway, Ab
Posts: 6,956
Default

Porcupines are a problem if you have cows. They have a tendency to sniff the porcupine
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 10-06-2022, 07:59 PM
270hunter 270hunter is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 379
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokinyotes View Post
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.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 10-06-2022, 08:18 PM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1,574
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smokinyotes View Post
Porcupines are a problem if you have cows. They have a tendency to sniff the porcupine
Ouch, fair enough then.
__________________
I fish, therefore I am.
Reply With Quote
  #16  
Old 10-06-2022, 09:56 PM
Dewey Cox's Avatar
Dewey Cox Dewey Cox is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: 204
Posts: 5,397
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Flyguy View Post
I have to ask: Why did you shoot a porcupine?
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.
__________________
"I like to quote my own quotes" ~ Dewey Cox
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 10-07-2022, 08:37 AM
Sundancefisher's Avatar
Sundancefisher Sundancefisher is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Calgary Perchdance
Posts: 18,776
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timberwoodsman View Post
I'm just getting into fly tying, does anyone hunt grouse and save anything to tie flys with? What parts? Any tips would help.

Sent from my SM-G781W using Tapatalk
Take the fly tying course at Fish Tales.

Best way to start is with good knowledge of key tying principles.
__________________
It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself. Charles Darwin
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 10-07-2022, 04:50 PM
densa44 densa44 is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: North of Cochrane
Posts: 6,649
Default 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.
__________________
"The well meaning have done more damage than all the criminals in the world" Great grand father "Never impute planning where incompetence will predict the phenomenon equally well" Father
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 10-07-2022, 06:13 PM
Mr Flyguy Mr Flyguy is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 1,574
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewey Cox View Post
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.
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.
__________________
I fish, therefore I am.
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 10-08-2022, 01:34 AM
fishnguy fishnguy is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 3,659
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by densa44 View Post
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.
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.
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 10-15-2022, 11:14 PM
crazy_davey crazy_davey is offline
Banned
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Foothills
Posts: 2,337
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kylebooker View Post
you need read a tying vise first

and the other tying tool
Jezus, give it a rest. Didn't you learn when the mods deleted all your posts?
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 10-16-2022, 08:17 AM
SNAPFisher SNAPFisher is offline
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 4,440
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dewey Cox View Post
Between the trees they kill and the animals they injure porcupines are "shoot on sight" around here.
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.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:33 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.5
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.