I'm in a "fowl mood"

[newsteelyman]

Lately I have been tying soft hackle flies as well as steelhead flies and have been having a tough time finding usable feathers. I have purchase several packs of grouse, partridge and guinnae but in a pack, I am lucky to get 10 decent feathers, especially guinnea for the larger steelhead flies. Anyone else have this problem or have you found a good source of feathers that you would care to share with others. thanx for any insite or help,
Brian

[phearless]

We have had a couple of threads on this.
Welcome to the world of finding good materials.
Guinea is a tough one.
The best way is to buy a premium full skin.
Same for partridge and grouse.
Unless you hunt:yeah:
Pick your bird and pop, feathers.
I still need to find a buddy in Alberta for premium partridge feathers though.
Wild birds are always better.

[rmpearson12]

I bit the bullet and bought a good quality Guinea Fowl hide along with three different types of Pheasant hides. Now I just grab a hide and get the feather I want without having to dig through a bag of crud feathers.

Ross

[bc_speys]

I always try to buy whole skins. Not only are there a wide variety of sizes to choose from, you can pick from opposite sides of the skin to match curvature for wings. Another advantage is that your feathers don't blow all over if you have the window open, as I like to do. Clean up is much easier and storage is simpler. Rather than searching through a number of different bags containing different size feathers, you simply pull out the skin and they are all there. But remember, not all skins are of the same quality, so be choosy before you purchase. If you can, open the bag and inspect the skin. It's not bad form to want the most for your money. You worked hard for it!

Cliff.

[knotnot]

As Phearless says the wild birds are best.
My collection of wild feathers are nice ( grouse, pheasant ) even the peacock feathers from a friend's farm are great , and the bird chases me around.
The info from the people here have taught me alot about feather quality and identification.
Thanks all

[newsteelyman]

thanx for the info guys. I think i am going to take your advice and keep my eyes open for whole skins. Much easier to store and find the correct feather without too much hassle or mess.
thanx again,
brian