Harvested a hen wood duck this morning and tied this up. What do you guys think?
2007 Scout 221 150 Yamaha 4 stroke
Looks good. The idea behind a seadeucer is to have stiffer hackle to push water but using soft hackle gives it another dimension and works too. The only suggestion I would make is to add just like 3 strands of krystal flash in the tail… Keep tyin !!!
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- www.SCKayakfishing.com
www.lowcountryflyshop.com
Tarpon 160os
Those hackles are very stiff had a hard time wrapping them without hackle pliers 
… I will try the flash in the tail next time! Thanks
2007 Scout 221 150 Yamaha 4 stroke
What I meant is the when you wrap the feathers they stick up more vertically and look stiffer, if they were hard to wrap around the shank of the hook then they were probably feathers not meant for wrapping like that. Not that you can’t, as you know. There are so many feathers on critters that wrap and react differently to being wound on a hook or tied down it’s a lot of fun playing with new stuff. Don’t worry about the “rules” dude… That fly looks good and I bet will catch fish… looking forward to your next creation. Anytime you need help or advice stop by the shop and we’ll help ya out!
“Paddle faster boys… I hear banjo music!”
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org
Charleston Director- www.SCKayakfishing.com
www.lowcountryflyshop.com
Tarpon 160os
Well a couple things… First, Nikon is right… you want to find hackles that have rigid barbs… That way they will stand upright and push water… this is the purpose of a seaducer… A feather with a very thick shaft that won’t wrap well is more likely to lay those barbs down as well… which looks like what is happening here… the barbs are not only soft, but the wraps (due to the thick feather shaft) are pinning alot of the hackle down… this is why chicken neck hackle works so well they are thinner and have rigid barbs…
Also, take feathers from the back or some other area of the bird that have a natural curve to them to make your tail… you want the hackles to “splay”… in other words, curve away from one another…
I would make the tail shorter as well… maybe 2x the width of the hook gap… no need to make it longer…
Work on reducing your thread wraps as well… When it comes to thread, one or two well placed wraps will hold just as well as 50 poorly placed ones… less is more, and makes your finished product look much better.
with fly-tying alot of it comes down to using the right materials… while Tying with a duck you killed is awesome, you should try to find a pattern that suits those materials rather than try to force them to do something they just can’t really do…
Glad to see you working on it… just gimme a shout if you ever have questions, or swing by the shop if you need to learn to do something… having someone show you will save you hours of doing it wrong trying to figure it out on your own…
Mad Mike
"to hell with insane… I’m OUTsane!!! "
I used the stiff hackles for the tail and some softer feathers for the head. It was hard because they werent very long… They wrapped easily I just couldn’t hang on to them very well. I will have to plan a trip and come up your way one weekend. Beaufort area doesn’t have much to choose from when it come to fly materials. Here’s another experiment…
2007 Scout 221 150 Yamaha 4 stroke