Sometime ago a friend of mine gave me some Macaw feathers. His wife works at a local Aviary.
Now I wondered for some time what to do with these. So here goes.
Here in the UK we have a Yellow Mayfly (Potamanthus luteus) which appears in late June and through to August. Sometimes the hatch can be big enough to prompt a rise, but generally is is spasmodic. There has even been conjecture that the trout do not feed on the adults but this is nonsense.
Buiklding on the 'Kite Special' way of doing a body, I produced this:
The body is 3 herl fibres twisted together, ribbed with fine gold wire and a hackle of yellow died partridge.
I was amazed at the result. When you twist the herls, the blue blends in to promote a really good segmentation effect.
Then I looked at the biots. Well...
The body is a single biot, no ribbing. However if I fished this I would think about a rib or at least varnish underneath it.
I am amazed at this effect and I am going to tie up some of these for next season.
By the way, the hook is a size 15.
So, there you are. Never look a gift horse in the mouth as they say. This feather makes a stunning body. So, go catch you 'polyanna' and grab a few feathers.
