Starling skin for soft hackles

[the river fox]

:hubbahubba::hubbahubba::smiley-sniffer:I was having problems finding partridge hackles short enough for some of my size 16 and up soft hackle wets. I had a Starling skin that I never used, decided to give it a try; dam I like this stuff, looks as good if not better than partridge. It has short fibers that "fit" my smaller hooks and a cool iridescent hue, that looks really good to me. So I tied a bunch of flies with it,its a lot easier to work with, as far as the short hackles are lower down on the "stem" and make for a more durable feather to man handle........ Any way, I took them out for a spin today, I just wanted to see how it looked in the river....... Tied on a Black Magic, and took a few casts.... It looked real good in the water, next cast.....Bang... 15" Brown thought it looked good too... Had no camera with me as I was just playing a bit....... I have a new lover, Starling skin.... It is a lot cheaper too... MY son and his BB gun can keep us fully stocked.......Oh ya was on the Beaverkill....

 

[Empty Creel]

Yup, I like starling for all those same reasons... also i use it for a cheapo alternative to jungle cock in making cheeks on streamers - not great for that in my book, but passable. I don't know why it's not more mainstream... possibly because it's confined to mostly smaller sizes?

unsung-starling

The Starling & Herl has been a nice pattern for me.

 

[Andy]

I have a lot of trouble tying with starling. I find the feathers aren't too strong and break rather easily. Maybe it's just the two skins I have. I agree that they are the right size and look good in the water.

 

[redietz]

I have a lot of trouble tying with starling. I find the feathers aren't too strong and break rather easily. Maybe it's just the two skins I have. I agree that they are the right size and look good in the water.

They take a bit of getting used to. One thing that helped me immensely when I was learning to handle them is to use the smallest possible hackle pliers; with large hackle pliers it doesn't take much of motion to break the
stem.

It should only take an evening or so catch on how to handle them correctly.

(As you might guess from my avatar, I go through a lot of starling.)