Winona Fly Factory asked some great questions about using Pheasant feathers for soft hackles. I don’t have a lot of experience with using pheasant for hackling, I forgot there are other parts of the bird besides the tails.
Here are 3 soft hackle flies tied with body feathers of the pheasant. I don’t have any pheasant wings at the moment, but I bet there are some very useful feathers for soft hackles.
These flies are size 20, 16, and 10 (3x long streamer), with feathers taken from different parts of the bird. The neck feathers just above the band made a nice size 20 soft hackle. Just below the neck had some 14 & 16s. These are dark and iridescent, a good substitute for starling.
This photo shows the bird’s neck and approximate location of the size 20 and 16 feathers. No photo of the size 10 feathers, but I took them from the back, near the base of the tail.
The back portion of the bird has great looking hackle for steelhead flies. Looks like a new project for me…
5 responses so far ↓
1 winonaflyfactory // Oct 26, 2008 at 6:57 pm
That is awesome! I really appreciate the detail.
2 Soft Hackles (Whiskey Creek Primer) « SwittersB’s Weblog // Nov 9, 2008 at 11:36 am
[...] http://wcflies.com/blog/2008/10/pheasant-for-soft-hackles/ [...]
3 johnny chamness // Jan 18, 2009 at 10:14 am
I gathered up alot of pheasant neck feathers while hunting in S.D. this fall; the leg feathers are also very nice for small SH. One bird will give enough for a life time of tying
4 WhiskeyCreek // Jan 18, 2009 at 11:06 am
Hi Johnny,
Thanks for stopping by, and giving me an incentive to shooting them myself.
5 Wet Flies & A Beginner’s Retreat (Stop Thinking So Much) « SwittersB & Fly Fishing // Jun 22, 2009 at 9:43 pm
[...] http://wcflies.com/blog/2008/10/pheasant-for-soft-hackles/ [...]
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