Soft Hackle Heaven

Whether you call it a partridge, thunderbird, thunder chicken, or a ruffed grouse, Bonasa umbellus is among the tastiest of all upland birds and game. It is also prized for its hackle in my fly tying stash. Fortunately, living in Minnesota provides me with the nation's premier grouse habitat and population, with over half a million birds harvested annually, making it Minnesota's top game bird. Life is good in the Great White North.


The rump feathers, while used to determine the sex of a ruffed grouse, are also a vital component of the venerable Carp Crack pattern. The ruff feathers, located on the sides of the necks of both genders, are used to form the collar on the Mustache Ride and Landing Strip patterns, as they are long and wispy, providing lots of movement in the water. They are the ultimate soft hackle for those larger streamer fly patterns.



Regardless of how you obtain a ruffed grouse skin, whether it be a a retail acquisition, roadkill salvage, harvested bird, or a donation from a fellow hunter, consider yourself blessed. The ruffed grouse is the pinnacle prize of keen fly tyers.

Friends In Low Places

A nicely preserved Plains sharp-tailed grouse skin, harvested from central North Dakota. Soft hackle heaven.

Postmodern Soft Hackles

The postmodern take on the classic soft hackle pattern Partridge and Orange, et al.

Clockwerk Orange:
Hook: Mustad 3906, Size 8
Thread: 6/0 UNI, Black
Body: Danville 4 Strand Rayon Floss, Orange
Thorax: Roughfisher's Seal Sub Dub, Peacock Poison
Hackle: Ruffed Grouse Body Feather
Head: 3.8mm Tungsten Bead

Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!

Roadside Treasures: Morality Check

Hypotheticals:
You find a fresh roadkill in the morning hours, victim of someone's commute to work. Normally it's a no-brainer situation; you pull over, grab the critter, and process the fur/feathers when you get a chance, further down the road. But what happens when the animal is protected or closed to possession? It's already dead right?

What do you do?


The Score:
The ring-necked pheasant is a treasure trove of feathers and hackle to the casual fly tyer. Everyday patterns like the PT Nymph would not be possible were it not for the beautifully barbed tail feathers from a rooster ringneck. Aside from the vibrant and iridescent flank and rump feathers, however, there isn't a ton of uses/patterns for the remaining feathers off of the rooster. Enter the hen ringneck. While much more subdued in coloration, the tan, cream, and brown-mottled feathers of the hen contain some wonderful soft hackles, even rivaling those of the Hungarian Partridge. While legal for purchase stateside, hen ring-necked pheasant skins are much harder to find off the rack, and the $15 to $30 price tag can be a bit hard to swallow for a female ditch parrot. And everyone knows that the feather quality of shot birds is second to none over those chemically treated commercial skins.

Legalese:
Minnesota Rule states that only cock roosters may be taken (albeit by firearm or bow and arrow), whereas State Statute provides contradictory language, such that "A person may not take more than one hen pheasant in one day or possess more than two hen pheasants". Which supersedes which, Statute or Rule? Of course, the regulations booklet trumps all, stating that "Road-killed animals may not be legally possessed, except by special permit from a DNR conservation officer, state patrol, county sheriff or other law enforcement officer."

So what do you do? Do you take the bird and secretly pluck and "possess" the feathers off the hen, I mean, It's already dead right? No harm, no foul? Or do you leave the bird lay, as it's just not worth the risk of getting caught for possession?


That's what I thought....

Caveat Emptor: The author, nor roughfisher.com, condone the breaking of any federal or state game and fish laws. 
Take the post for what it's worth. No statutes, laws, or rules were broken for the creation and purpose of this post.

friends in low places

Much can be said about your coworkers. Everyone has a few horror stories to share, and there always seems to be a Milton Waddams, Tom Smykowski, or Bill Lumbergh in the crowd. Love 'em or leave 'em, every once in a while one of them will come through and hook you up.




The beauty of working in a co-located office are the perks with working alongside other sections and divisions. One of my wildlife cohorts surprised me the other day by bringing two boxes of feathers into my office. When I opened them up, I discovered a bounty of pheasant, grouse, turkey, and mallard feathers. Now this was the mother lode. Now I've got more hackle than I could ever use in 20 years. Once I sorted, treated, and packed all of the feathers, I managed to fill up an entire grocery bag, to the top. That's over 7 gallons of feathers.



Speaking of sweet ass hackle, I couldn't pass up a chance at picking up a starling skin when I was over at the Fly Angler last week. Thanks to Justin over at WFF for piquing my interest earlier this winter. One major bonus at the shop: they had pheasant rump in golden yellow! Hot damn! Been looking for this stuff for a couple years now, and this is the first shop I've come across that actually had some in stock. I was just about ready to mail order some from a company in the PNW, but luckily I was able to procure some "locally". That is if you consider a 200 mile distance local. Unfortunately for me, that's the closest fly shop around. Now I can finally get started tying up a patch of carp carrots, but that's for another story.

Has anyone seen my red Swingline stapler?

the possie bugger

A bitch slappin' pattern, these possie buggies break down the hizzie. I stashed away an original from my swap with Stansberry last spring. It was time to bust it out and start cloning, roughfisher style. Sparkle, sparkle.


I didn't have opposum or woodchuck or any of the fancy shit they used in the original. The tail was rabbit, pearl flash accent, along with a pearl flash and wire rib. The body was crafted with custom Slim Shady dub, a partridge thorax, and custom Peacock dub and tungsten head. Tied on a Fly Shop 2305 hook, size 10.

I'm Audi 5, G.

Forest chickens

Roadside score. The ruffed grouse is possibly one of the tastiest byproducts of the northern boreal forest. They are also most excellent for tying soft hackled nymphs, preferred over partridge and woodcock for their beautiful barring, variegation, and nice webby hackle. This treasure of the Tioga will be perfect for caddis patterns.

It's always nice to replenish the stash.

critter call

This has been a bonus week for me on fly tying scores. Not only did I pick up a wild turkey skin (Eastern), I scored over a pound and a half of llama fur in all sorts of colors for making dubbing and streamers. To top it off, I'll be getting a red fox skin in the coming week.


Looks like I've got plenty to keep me busy for awhile, getting the skins, feathers and fur treated for use. Good thing too, since the rivers in the region are still blown. I'm jonesing to get out, and the need to keep myself occupied is getting old. Help me.