FLYMPH FORUM

Just a small experiment, POC (Possum & Oyster Catcher).



Hook: Unknown #6 cut to length & furled mono eye added
Thread: Unknown #12
Hackle: Oyster Catcher breast feather (Roadkill recovered)
Tag & Rib: Med oval silver tinsel
Abdomen/Lower Thorax: Clark block brush of Kinkame purple silk, paste wax and possum fur.
Upper Thorax/Head: Hends Spectra Dubbing #46. Kind of a dark almost black Peacock colour.

Hook comes from a box at some bargain store where you get 500 for $5. They are long shanked, maybe 4X, with a wicked kirb and reasonably soft. The brush was formed with possum underfur from the belly region at the base and same at the thorax with guard hairs added. Perhaps still a little heavy in the dubbing application to let the silk show through. Wax is a popular leather dressing paste wax usually used for dressing hiking boots, nice tacky wet wax when applied, but dries hard.
Not terribly happy with the scanned image which I have tweaked a little, might have to go back to the camera/light box set up, takes more time, but I feel I can perhaps get better results that way.

Not sure if this will ever be fished, bit giant sized for my usual fishing.

MM

That is one beautiful tie and should be a great fishcatcher!

I think you already know if it will be fished. Did you tie in the eye solid for fishing or just for looks.

This has a really nice vintage look to it, and that hackle looks very interesting. Any chance we could see a magnified image of the feather barbs?

Thanks guys, was kind of a "throw together" pattern from materials that were not getting used. I spun some bodies that were too big and bulky for regular sizes.

Roadkill, the eye is formed as well as I know how to and the tails run the length of the body, wrapped down and up again, then coated with varnish...... so it could be fished.

tie2fish, I must admit the patterns shown here of late were a bit of an inspiration along vintage lines, I am glad I may have stumbled onto the style. The hackle is black/green and white tipped. Not many of the feathers from the donor bird are coloured in such a way. My father is the local authority on all things avian, ornithological and the photography of such subjects, he has some fine Oyster Catcher shots that I will ask him to email me one of that I can post here to give an idea of what the bird looks like as the one the hackle came from was a bit squished.

I am unsure of the status of the bird in question, I know you cannot hunt them willy-nilly, but as to gathering feathers I am unsure. Hundreds of them are killed by vehicle strike each year and they have the unfortunate habit of nesting and raising their young on the sides of roads here.

Some of the variation of feathers available from the donor.

Handsome little rascals ... thank you for the photo.

Mataura Mayfly, Howdy;

Look something like this ??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oystercatcher

hank

That's them Hank, the Pied Oyster Catcher, also known as the South Island Oyster Catcher locally.
There are two other species floating around, a lot rarer than the Pied and a heck of a lot more protected. The solid black ones and the variable ones, with the variable being hard to tell from the pied at times.

Jeff,
This is a great post. Who else would snip off the eye and tie on a loop instead?
The scan isn't so bad. Can you adjust the scan resolution higher?

Lance

Lance, anyone else who had a heap of crappy long shanked hooks? I like the bend profile of these hooks, don't like the softness and ease they bend with.

Here are a couple of my Dad's photographs of the common Pied Oyster Catcher. Standing, you can see the feathers at the transition line of the colours on the breast, the lowest black feathers are white tipped. In flight, you can see iridescence on the coverts of the wings like Starling.