Reply #8

[younggun]

Juan de Fuca, both your points are valid, i like the eyes on the bottom of the shanks, and i like my hooks to face up. My trailer material is 65lb fireline. The old stuff, which essentially is synthetic wire. Its nice and stiff, and can fit through the eye of a #1 just fine.

NWRetics- the reason for the high price of the feathers is that they are hand picked, hand died, and collected off the ground after a bird has "shed" its plumage. Plus there just aren't that many rhea birds around.  I find rhea makes much nicer looking, fishing, and durable flies compared to ostrich. I've attempted with the razor blade but you get to much meat of the feather. When you strip the rhea as shown you get the membrane on the exterior of the stem and fibres, allowing you to easily tie in and palmer the fibres, when split down the centre you can't palmer. I also spin the fibres in a waxed dubbing loop. Either way produces nice flies.

thanks for the comments

YG