Fly Swap Tip

[Marc Martyn]

Once the flies are mailed back to the participants, some of the flies may be matted down from being in the package. You can easily bring the hackle back to the original form by doing a simple procedure:

If you have a tea kettle, bring some water to boil. Take the fly and place it in your hackle pliers. Pass the fry over the stream of steam and the hackle will bounce back to the normal shape. It is great for peacock hackle. It immediately fluffs back up. This is a great way to restore your flies that have fish slim on them. If you don't have a kettle, a pan of boiling water will do the same thing.

The concept of restoring feathers goes back to the Victorian era or beyond. The fashion then was hats with ostrich plumes and other bird feathers. The "ladies" would send their hats out to the hat shop and have them steamed.

Give it a shot, it works great:cheers:

[beresford13861]

thanks 100% true, i use it all the time!

most bugs for this swap should not be damaged we have boxes

[Marc Martyn]

My flies will most likely be flattened out since they are in a bubble mailer.
I wasn't casting any aspersions on you Marko:)

[Lotech Joe]

Great tip Marc.
I used to use it to fluff up the feather fletchings on my arrows when I was a bow hunter. Works great. Saves lots of money too.

[JimLyons]

I am really ready to have the problem of fish slime on my flies! Thanks Marc:cheers:

[Marc Martyn]

Ya, me too!