What kind of sick individual came up with the idea of tying knots into pheasant tail barbs? It did get a little easier once I left them on the quill while tying the knot.

And you can, or could, buy it that way in fly shops. Anyone seen it lately?

Now why would I want to outsource this frustration? Besides, it is getting easier with each knot.
They say the knots are a piece of cake after the first 100 or so. I'm well on the way.

That's the spirit!

ha! no thanks! Check ebay for "legs on a stick"

$2.35 + $3.00 flat rate shipping? I would be very interested in how these are produced. Pretty sure there's no automation involved. Someone somewhere has nimble fingers!

I already have legs in a bag.

Looks like they only got 40 or so from one feather. They must be thicker than my 3-barb legs.
I'll guess that they cut off the tip of the feather and work their way down.

Use a small crochet needle, It helped me immensely...


gren

My first few attempts were with a stiffish wire with a vee bent into the end- sortof like a crochet needle. Couldn't figure out how to make that work.

Perhaps I'm just turning the loop the wrong way. Pushing the tag end thru seems easier than pulling it. Hemostats worked ok, but curved tip needle noses made it real easy.

Sounds like it sorted out. So what are you tying with them anyway?

Got into this by tying the Mudeye from Peter Gathercole's "The Fly-Tying Bible." Can't find a Mudeye on google which looks like his.

His version consists of a rabbit dubbed body, legs, wabbit thorax, legs, wabbit head, glass bead eyes, and PT wing case.

My first attempt was too ugly to post. Now that I have a bunch of legs at hand, I'll have another go.

Not to jack the thread but just to join in marveling in appreciation of the animal and what a fine tying resource it is.


That soft hackle�from a blue or green lower back feather�looks spidery enough to scare the girls.

Yes it is!

Those do look mighty spidery. Thanks for that link. I recently got what looks like a pheasant skin. Been wondering what to do with the assorted feathers.

Just pulled the skin out of the BassPro variety pack. It is indeed a ringneck. Guess I got lucky. It has plenty of nice feathers - it now lives in it's own bag.