Fly Tying with Natural Feathers

Video Transcript

"ALVIN DEDEUX: The next type of material is feathers. All kinds of different feathers, pheasant tail feathers, peacock feathers, rooster feathers, they'll come in a million different sizes, a million different colors and a bunch of different applications. Once again, some feathers are going to be better for floating flies. Other feathers are going to be better for sinking flies. Some feathers like the peacock feathers, they have this natural iridescence to them so that makes them a really great fly and they don't have to do anything to them whereas some of the rooster feathers will be dyed different colors, sometimes in some pretty bizarre colors. I don't think you guys ever seen a red rooster anywhere even though there's plenty of blues songs about them. But they'll dye the materials or they'll keep them in natural color like the peacock, and they'll also, once again depending on the texture of the fly--of the feather, will render itself better to a floating or a sinking fly. A big webby feather is going to tend to absorb more moisture than a nice thin feather with the sharp barbs. That one's going to tend to make your fly want to float on the water. So feathers are probably the most traditional fly-tying material. You think of tying flies, you usually think of tying feathers on a hook."