Fly tying with stream-side road kill. Photo By: Louis Cahill
I don’t know what I’m going to tie up with these salvaged black crow wing and tail feathers. It’s all that was salvagable with the majority of the bird covered in maggots and flies. I just felt obliged to swipe a few feathers in the efforts to create something positive and pay my respects to this unfortunate road kill speciman. I’ve scoured the internet looking for some fly patterns recipes that use wing and tail feathers from black crow, but I’ve come up empty handed.
Can anybody help me out here or point me in the right direction?
Keep it Reel,
Kent Klewein Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
I don’t have any ready recipes, just thinking out loud. But I’m guessing the shoulder feathers will make decent soft hackles for wets, and the longer wing feathers could provide material for wet fly wings and shells for black beetle patterns.
Pdew,
Right on man. Thanks for your two cents.
Kent
Go to Hans Weilenmann’s website and search for “crow”. There are a number of patterns that show up. Looking forward to seeing the results.
Shellbacks on nymphs. Wind individual fibers as biot-type bodies on dries or nymphs. Soak/strip the feathers and wind them on Zellman-style intruders? Random ideas. Good on you for salvaging.
I use to trap consistently until my career took a turn. Every year I would tan a few hides for myself and always found the furn to be good tying material, muskrat, mink, beaver etc. I still have an nice collection of tanned hides and bits and pieces of fur that works wonders. Once I found a road kill fox squirrel, yep you got it…tanned and now part of flies.
I appreciate the sentiment of using roadkill… but I reckon a moments silence and glance skywards.
Odd as it may seem, I’m pretty sure American Crow is one of the many birds covered by the Migratory Bird Act, which says that you can’t possess even a feather.
http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/RegulationsPolicies/mbta/mbtandx.html
Mark,
Wow, didn’t know that. It may take them a while to find them among the my huge stash of tying materials and extremely messy fly tying desk. Ha
Kent
Crows are legal to hunt here in Alabama. Getting in trouble for possession of a crow feather? Laughable.
I would imagine it’s a gray area. There are legal hunting seasons on them in some states, but they are otherwise covered by the act, unless they’re eating your crops or something, I think — it’s a little hard to tell from the USFWS documents. Mostly wanted to throw out a caution about collecting feathers — there wouldn’t be any wiggle room on a raptor or warbler or something like that, and lots of people don’t know about the MBTA. I enjoy the blog.
Mark,
Thanks for the information. Its a shame its illegal to salvage feathers from a bird that died of natural causes and would otherwise go to waste.
Law is law and now I know. Thanks for following G&G
Kent
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I am pretty sure keeping crow feathers for fly tying falls under the same category as keeping duck and goose feathers for fly tying. One of the creators of the legislation on migratory birds was a fly fisher and he put a provision in for posessing, selling and buying migratory bird feathers for fly tying material.
There was a huge discussion about it on one of the traditional archery forums a while back regarding the used of them for fletching on primitive gear.
Archery is a gray area. Fly tying is clearly allowed.
Doyle,
Thanks for that great information! We had Multiple opinions on this subject and I think your comment will clear this up.
Kent
When picking up wild fur or feathers is there concern for bringing unwanted bugs/paracites to you tying bench? I’d worry about bugs that eat your hackles and then how do you get rid of them?
Eric Leiser wrote a book about materials: http://amzn.to/XBGdWC
Yup! The fly tying materials police investigator will soon be knocking on your door to check your feathers! I am terrified!!