Tying peacock herl

Jim great question. I have the same issue with peacock herl. I’ve found when I pull a herl from a full length peacock feather with eye. I’m able to consistently get the iridescent color to show (not always) when wrapping. As oppose to trying to wrap a peacock herl from just a package of herls. I’m not sure if this makes a difference, but have noticed this with my fly tying. I’ll be interested in what a more experienced fly tyer has to say.

Great Question Jim ! I find that the only successful manner to wrap peacock herl is to wrap it around my thread multiple times forming a cord like (chenille) looking affair and then wrapping this onto the hook shank. It seems to give good iridescent shine as well as reduce the number of time the herl breaks.

Jim, Here is what I do to make a durable fly. Trim back the tips, they are dry and brittle. We are going to make a peacock rope or peacock chenille. Select several similar sized peacock herls (4-6) and tie them to the hook shank by their tips. Create a thread loop as long as the herls and insert your dubbing loop tool. Slide the herls into the loop and place pressure on the loop with the loop tool so that the herls hold in place. with the loop held tight, spin the tool to bind the herls. Keep spinning the loop until a thick bushy rope is constructed with a chenille looking appearance. Wrap the rope up the hook shank for the fly, creating a nice even peacock body.

I tried Woolybugg’s method last night with good success. I did notice as I wrapped down the hook shaft I would have to twist the rope a few turns as I wrapped the hook.

I hesitate to add this but UV2 Ice dubb in peacock works well but you have to dub small amounts at a time. It is kind of wiry and can be hard to dubb if you use too much at once.

Bill

Jim,
Take a look at this video. The way you wrap the herl makes a big difference in how it looks on the shank. Also, make sure you have good herl. There is a difference.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=wrapping+peacock+herl&view=detail&mid=7BCC582C2027D43CB9807BCC582C2027D43CB980&FORM=VIRE

Good luck,
Dave

There you go, Dave simplified the technique. It depends on orientation of the herl and the quality of the material. Good going Dave.

Jim,
Buy yourself an actual Peacock! Then you can feed it well and get some great herl AND they make great “watch dogs” as they screech loudly when humans come near. Just a thought.

Look at craft stores like Michaels as well. They have feathers from different birds Like Pheasant, Ostrich, Peacock.

Quality of herl is not just the color, but make sure you get good length in the individual barbs. The best part of the individual ostrich feathers is the herl closest to the eye.

Here you go guys. All you wanted to know about peacock herl

http://www.peninsulaflyfishers.org/page-878836

Thanks Dave, great information. So, now I have a shoe box full of inferior peacock herls. My wife, I discovered, has better peacock feathers in vases sitting around the house. I think she will notice if the left side of the feather is missing. The question is, what do we do with the poor quality herl. Pitch it and start over, or learn to convert it to quills and tie quill body flies. I think that is a pretty easy step. You just need an eraser, a poor quality herl and a little patience. Hold the herl down on a flat surface between your thumb and trigger finger and rub the hair off the herl with the eraser. You could color the quill with a magic marker if desired. Boy, I have a ton of poor quality peacock to convert to quills. Tie, tie, tie.

Don’t throw away the bad peacock herl!! As you said you can ‘take off’ the herl and tie quill bodies. The quill bodies look awesome for dry flies, midge bodies, etc. Yes, you can use an eraser but there is a way to use I think bleach mixture so to do more quills at one time. I’ll see if I can find the video.

How bad are all your herls? They don’t have to be fluffy full of herl and should still have a bright side. Maybe save them for the ‘tiny’ flies size 20 and smaller.

Video on how to strip many peacock herls at once!!

Stripping Peacock Quills

Thanks Ken for the video link. I have in the past tried to strip herls chemically with bleach and baking soda. My quills came out either over bleached or to brittle to use. I found years ago the method of using an eraser. I normally tie flies in batches of 6. So, it was no big deal for me to erase 6 or 7 herls.

Also, read the comments below the video. Many tiers had a problem with the chemical method or at least the baking soda as a neutralizer, but preferred vinegar. That could have been why my quills turned out poorly.

In the end game I think what we have learned is to buy quality peacock eyes with more feathers on the left side.