I do not know what bird the quill comes from. I have a quill section that Dick Talleur gave me long ago saying "here use this for Breadcrusts". I have heard that the originals were tied with grouse quill.

Tom

coincidence I was gifted some Chadwicks 477 yarn just a couple of days ago by a good friend and tied up a sawyers Killer Fly just this morning.

Tom

Very nicely done!!

Tom

Found this interesting. Stewarts 1st winged fly called for a wood cock wing with a Hackle of landrail and a body of yellow silk. I subbed American Woodcock over covert feather rolled for the wing and the reddish undercovert feather for the called for landrail hackle along with the yellow silk for th...

Tom [/quote] According to W.C. Stewart in his book, The Practical Angler ( worth owning in my opinion ) Stewart says; The Red Spider should be made of the small feather taken from the outside of the wing of the landrail, dressed with yellow silk, and is deserving of a very high rank, particularly in...

Just my interpretation. Nobody really knows. I have seen Starling,landrail,dotterel listed by others. A pattern that works and no one knows how to correctly tie it!


Tom

Hook. Daiichi 1180 size 12.
Silk. Pearsalls gossamer yellow.
Body .same.
Hackle. Landrail! Subbed with under covert feather of a European Jay.

Hook. Partridge North Country size 14.
Silk Pearsalls gossamer yellow.
Body. Same.
Thorax. Peacock Herl.
Hackle. Light Partridge.

Another way of saying as Darbee did. The wing is set back at the expense of a shortened body leaving a clean neck at the eye of the hook so that the fly floats better. Turle knot,clinch not,or whatever you use has nothing to do with how the fly floats. The stiffness of the tippet material would,espe...