-
Tie in a strand of gold oval tinsel and wrap
it up the hook five times, creating a tag.
-
Tie in a single golden pheasant tippet.
-
Pre-cut a piece of gold Mylar tinsel and
select an orange blue-eared pheasant feather.
Fold the feather fibers rearward, in preparation
of step five.
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Dub the orange seal fur in a dubbing loop.
-
Make two turns with the dubbing loop,
securing the ends of the Mylar and blue-eared
pheasant with the wraps of the dubbing loop. Let
them dangle freely, while continuing to wrap the
dubbing loop forward ¾ up the hook.
-
Rib the tinsel forward through the dubbing,
using a pin to free any flattened fur.
-
Wrap the pheasant hackle upwards, alongside
the tinsel.
-
Secure with thread and trim all ends.
Peel a side of a black rhea feather and tie in
the tip.
*To peel rhea, pinch the strands at the tip of
the feather and carefully pull down. The
membrane should separate from the stem with all
its fibres intact. This gets easier with
practise but is well worth a few casualties to
be able to have such a remarkable hackle, free
of the bulky stem. When tying the peeled rhea
onto a shank, wrap the membrane as though it
were the stem of a regular feather.
-
Dub and wrap the red seal fur up the
remainder of the shank.
-
Hackle the black rhea through the dubbing.
You’ll only need to make two or three wraps.
-
Sequentially stack and layer three ring neck
feathers, flattening the stems with flat-nosed
pliers.
-
Tie in a pair of tragopan feathers as cheeks.
-
Whip finish and coat with head cement.
