Bulldollyhuman
Smolt
Jungle cock feathers are too expensive. Could you please recommend some alternatives?
Which feathers do you use for crustacean eyes?
- Thread starter Bulldollyhuman
- Start date
I cut off a piece of 50 lb mono, melt the end with a lighter to create bulbs on the end and then tie those in as eyes for shrimp and crawfish patterns.
Richard Olmstead
Steelhead
The rivers of Argentina have crustaceans called pancora that are like crawfish, but are about as wide as long. I put a glass bead on a bit of fly line backing and melt the end to form a ball so the bead won't slide off. Carapace is a pheasant rump feather; claws are India hen feathers.
Burn the end of a piece of mono and press it flat. I slip a small glass bead over the open end. The flat end will stop it from slipping off. Cover with UV and zap it with your light. The color combos are endless.
Alternative is to get some color UV and add it to the end of mono.
SF
Alternative is to get some color UV and add it to the end of mono.
SF
As @clarkman mentions, starling is used as a poor man's substitute for jungle cock eyes. I have a starling skin but haven't found any feathers on the skin that come close to that of jungle cock. No big deal to me since steelhead fly tying is history.
DK and I were fishing the Thompson River in 2003. While up there, we met up with Joe Kambeitz who shared some of his wisdom for fishing this river and gifted me one of his "signature" flies, the Squamish Poacher (we have a forum member who uses @Squamishpoacher as his site handle (Hi, Glenn!)). This is a very poor tie I finished up based on what I recall Joe telling me:
The eyes are constructed from burnt monofiliament with a small glass bead superglued onto the monofilament.
DK and I were fishing the Thompson River in 2003. While up there, we met up with Joe Kambeitz who shared some of his wisdom for fishing this river and gifted me one of his "signature" flies, the Squamish Poacher (we have a forum member who uses @Squamishpoacher as his site handle (Hi, Glenn!)). This is a very poor tie I finished up based on what I recall Joe telling me:
The eyes are constructed from burnt monofiliament with a small glass bead superglued onto the monofilament.
Squamishpoacher
Smolt
It looks just like me Pat!
If you really want to use a feather and not a synthetic, you can use a golden pheasant tippet and trim it by cutting a V out of the middle of the feather. The black barring at the tip of the on the orange feather suggests an eye. As I recall ,the traditional GP (General Practitioner) steelhead flies used this method on the aft-most shell back feather.
But I'm really liking the mono methods, especially the one from Richard adding a glass bead!
-andy
But I'm really liking the mono methods, especially the one from Richard adding a glass bead!
-andy
Melted monofilament, mono with a bead (glass or plastic - I prefer plastic for beach fishing, because rocks always seem to jump up off the beach behind me and attack my fly 
). Bead chain of various sorts, black plastic bead chain looks good. Hair brush bristles - the ones with the blob on the end. There are probably a few other things that I have used too!
None of those are great for jungle cock substitutes if you are trying to recreate something. The best fake jungle cock I ever saw was paint on a feather (maybe a starling). Looked better than the real thing.
). Bead chain of various sorts, black plastic bead chain looks good. Hair brush bristles - the ones with the blob on the end. There are probably a few other things that I have used too!None of those are great for jungle cock substitutes if you are trying to recreate something. The best fake jungle cock I ever saw was paint on a feather (maybe a starling). Looked better than the real thing.
Bulldollyhuman
Smolt
Thanks all! I ordered some glass beads and new UV resin.