How To Source (and tie flies) With Found Materials

Many fly tyers go through a “roadkill” stage, unable to resist the temptation of “free” materials. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, and most of us grow out of this tendency fairly quickly.

I still have a bag of Gray Squirrel tails I collected many years ago. Squirrels are a common roadkill item. I stopped picking up and skinning whole carcasses after I had a couple of pelts. But for a long time I carried a pair of pruning shears in the car for the sole purpose of collecting tails. If I spotted a nice fresh kill, it was very easy to pull over, snip off the tail, and bring it home to dry well and then store in a Ziploc bag with some moth nuggets.

When I had a large bag full of tails, I stopped this too. I use some of my squirrel tail supply now and then, if I need to tie a few Picket Pins or something else that calls for it. But when I shuffle off this mortal coil, some other tyer may be lucky enough to inherit what’s left—which should be a lot. Whoopee.

One of my most memorable roadkill events involved a deceased Fox Squirrel in Cleveland, OH. I was on a road trip with my mother-in-law to visit her friends and relatives there. I had never seen a live Fox Squirrel before and was amazed and fascinated by their size and color. We saw lots of them on lawns right in the city, as common as Gray Squirrels were at home in southeastern Pennsylvania.

One day we were out in the car and I spotted a freshly whacked Fox Squirrel on the side of the road.

“Wow, a Fox Squirrel!” I exclaimed. “And it’s in really good shape.”

My mother-in-law, who by this time knew my weird proclivities all too well, shot me a look and said calmly, “Mary, no.”

Then there’s the craft store phase. Why pay, say, three or four dollars for a spool or card of yarn from a fly tying retailer when you could have a whole skein for not much more?

Let me tell you something. I have storage containers full of skeins and balls and snippets of yarn that I’ve either purchased or inherited from other tyers or needlework enthusiasts. I rarely use any of it.

Unless you tie flies on an industrial scale, why would you ever need a whole skein of anything?

I once thought, “I’ll buy variegated yarn so I’ll have a number of different colors in one skein.” The variegated skein doesn’t get any more use than the others. When I need yarn, I almost always head for my collection of spooled and carded yarn. Sold in fly-tying-friendly quantities, I can have far more colors and types of yarn without the problem of storing what seems like enough to stock a sweater factory.

Now, with the hindsight of over 50 years of avid fly tying, this seems like a no-brainer. But I had to learn the hard way. Hey, look at the bright side. Some lucky tyer will inherit my yarn collection too.

I gave up hunting some years back, but at one time I did a fair amount of it. I was never a serious deer hunter, but I liked venison and would try to harvest a deer each winter. When I was successful, I’d keep the tail and the hide as well.

I knew how to clean and preserve these items properly, and I still have what I’m sure is a lifetime supply of general-utility deer hair and bucktail. However, I buy specialty deer and elk hair for specific fly tying purposes. If you’re tying Comparaduns or X-Caddis, not just any patch of hair will do.

In fly tying, results always depend on the quality of one’s materials. Considering the time and effort we put into our tying, it’s penny-wise and pound-foolish to cheap out. Uhhh…what’s a penny?

I used to do some upland bird hunting. My husband and I owned four Brittanies over a period of 35 years or so, and I enjoyed being in the field with them—mostly for game farm birds on shooting preserves.

I came away with plenty of pheasant, quail, and the odd chukar or Hungarian Partridge. One time, one of my dogs went on point at the edge of a field, and I was very surprised to flush and kill a pen-reared Mallard—a temporary survivor of a corporate tower shoot.

I had many wonderful meals from those birds and also saved some very nice feathers and skins for tying.

The one bit of field-sourcing of fly tying materials I still engage in is picking up feathers and occasional bits of fur that I find in my yard—either naturally shed or scraps left behind by predators.

Red-tailed Hawks are residents here, but most of their kills tend to be squirrels. They leave nothing behind but bits of the tail—for which I have no need at this point. See above.

I also host a Cooper’s Hawk most winters, typically an immature bird whose hunting skills are not finely tuned as yet. Many of these young birds would not survive their first winter if not for the relatively easy pickings to be had by hanging around a bird-feeding station. So I don’t begrudge them this important survival tactic.

And I get to see them close-up and at work, which I regard as a wonderful gift in itself.

I picked up a lone Mourning Dove feather in my yard recently, and it called out to be made into an Iron Blue Dun soft hackle. And I once found a patch of very nice Starling hackles, perfect for a soft-hackle pattern my friend Jim Clark shared with me.

Maybe I’m too superstitious, but I’d like to believe these gifts from Mother Nature have magical properties when they’re at the end of my tippet.