"Free Fly-Tying Materials" by Allan Fife

Anglers who have not learned to tie their own flies frequently assume that the necessary materials are expensive. They need not be especially if you are mainly interested in filling your fly boxes with the simple nymphs that catch the most trout (most of mine, anyway). The kinds of patterns that I am referring to are the Hare's Ears, the Pheasant Tails, and their myriad variants: the sort of flies that comprise a large portion of most NZ angler's fly boxes. Other effective flies which can also be made for next-to-nothing include soft-hackle wets, comparduns, and emergent sedges.

One worthwhile source of free materials is the road margin. There is a section in my "Whole Earth Catalogue" that deals with the preparation of road kills for the pot. I haven't yet explored the culinary potential of road kills, but I have gathered a fair bit of fur and feather from them, and urge you to do the same. This stuff is just there for the taking and its collection will provide a diversion on long drives! Beside saving money, you will get pleasure out of fooling a trout with a fly made from something that you have scraped off the asphalt!

I have read some books that try to discourage beginners from scrounging their own materials--in most cases the author turned out to own a fly tying materials business. Finding your own materials is part of the fun of tying your own. If you need further convincing, I recommend you read John Gierach's "Fly-tying's national bird" in Sex, Death and Fly-fishing (read it regardless!).

The advantages of finding freshly killed animals are fairly obvious. Road Pizzas won't do you much good. If you hunt, or have a friend who does so, this is not an issue. Generally, I find plucking just the feathers or trimming the fur that I want from a road kill is easier than skinning the whole animal. The best part of a hare or rabbit, for instance, is the fur of the ears and mask, and you can easily trim this off in a few minutes with suitable scissors (kept in car for this purpose?). I have never had an problem with parasites, but I put all newly acquired material into a zip-lock bag and leave it in the freezer for about two weeks, and this is guaranteed to kill any parasites! This is similar to the way museums treat animal or plant material prior to incorporating material into research collections.

Dyeing some of the material is also worthwhile. I have developed a great fondness for olive-green Hare's Ears on #14&16 3X hooks, and have dyed part of a rabbit skin to the appropriate hue. I now have material for many season's worth of one of my favourite nymphs. I have had good results dyeing fur (mostly rabbit and deer) and feathers from many species using "Dylon" from the chemist. Specialist "Veniard" dyes can by purchased by mail if you want to get serious about this, but I am more of the chuck-it-in-and-see-what-comes-out school. Loose hair is a nuisance to dye so if you plan to dye the fur it is probably worthwhile to skin out the animal.

The following are some of the materials (and some of their uses) that I have found in the past year:

Starlings and blackbirds. These provide great hackles for wets and nymphs. Many classic soft hackle wet fly patterns use one or the other.

Hares and rabbits--the fur from one freshly killed animal, especially if trimmed off and separated according to length, texture, and colour will go a long way, and provide one of the "staples" of your tying. A tying friend tells me that the "mask" is traditionally used for flies only because is was, in the past, the only part of the hare skin that was not utilised for another purpose (felting?), and that he actually prefers the shoulder hair, because it is softer. I prefer the shorter hair of the mask for most purposed, but it is all useful. Experiment and draw your own conclusions. Dye some green, brown, yellow, etc. and then blend with Antron to provide a bit of sparkle.

Pukekos--the breast and saddle feathers mostly useful for tying lures, but I suspect there are other uses.

Possums--I find much of their fur is too coarse to be real useful but I found some pre-cleaned (by a harrier, I suspect), soft orange belly fur by a stream margin recently--good dubbing material.

Pheasants--I have made good use of hen pheasant feathers (for nymph wing cases, etc), but I live in hope of finding a freshly killed cock! I still resort to buying my pheasant tail feathers--one good one will tie maybe a hundred PT's. I tend not to waste good tail fibres (that I pay for) on wing cases--but use any old brown feather for this purpose. The trout do not notice.

Ducks--each yields about a dozen "cul-de-canard" feathers (duck's ass feathers to the unschooled)--and these cost the earth in the shops! These are the oil-impregnated feathers that surround the bird's oil gland--a few inches above the anus. CDC's are perfect for caddis imitations and also make lovely hackleless dry flies. The wings from one mallard will supply you with wing material for endless wets and dries. Paired primaries can easily be dyed to any colour. Breast and flank feathers are also useful (for wings, etc). I am watching for a Paradise duck.

Deer--I've never found one at the roadside, but these are fairly easily come by. Part of a tanned deer hide will keep you tying Humpies, Caddis emergers (combined with scavenged CDC feathers!), and Comparaduns for years. Some hides (or parts of them) are much better than others. Deer fur dyes very easily to just about any colour.

Golf balls--Not exactly a road kill, but sometimes sharing the same habitat. The inner elastic makes good nymph bodies. One will last you a life time, but I think you get different colours from different ones! Kids love to tear them apart for you!

Capes--not yet found on the road, but a friend who breeds bantams has given me some very useful material, and I have told him that I could always use more.

Other material that I have scavenged recently include a stoat's tail that has yielded some useful dubbing (there's even a British salmon fly called a Stoat Tail--but I haven't tied one!), yellowhammer breast feathers, thar hair, a lovely collection of coloured yarns (from Colombo Street), copper wire, and a few kinds of feathers that might be illegal (but they were dead!). I haven't yet skinned out a cat, but if I find one just the right colour I might be tempted.