Cat's Whiskers- no.....

[gingerdun]

I've enjoyed reading this post. While I have nothing to add regarding whiskers, some of the photos reminded me of a variegated quill body fly that Pete Hidy tied. Notice how there is a white stripe in the quill that gets bigger, and then dominates, as it goes toward the base of the quill, next to the thorax of the fly.

[William Anderson]

No Kidding!! I'm sure I haven't seen this in the very limited amount of info we have on Hidy's flies. This is amazing to see. The hook selection, and the thorax hackling. Just supports a lot of what we have been tying contemporarily...except for the size of that barb. Good lord.

w

[willowhead]

what a cool thread.

[Mataura mayfly]

I use those verigated stripped quills a bit..... when I can find them! One of my favourite dry flies calls for a verigated herl body.
You can strip a lot of quills from a lot of feathers before finding one that wil show the variation of the one in your photo. Usually the best contrast in colour will come from feathers with very large eyes and from the quills just below the eye on the stem.

I read a very good "how to find and what to look for" posting regarding verigated peacock herl by Mike Valla once...... just cannot remember where!