Ostrich herl

Lately, I have been tying a lot with natural fibres. Especially when you want to retrieve your fly slowly, these fibres really give a lot of movement.

I really like using ostrich herl and I know, this is not a material you use when durability of your fly comes first. One pike bite and your fly can be demolished, but I really don’t care when my fly gets killed by a pike.

 

What I don’t like, is when my fly looks worse and worse, just by fishing it.

This fly only hit the water for about 20 minutes, and look what is left of the big clump of green ostrich herl.

I did notice though that not every colour reacts in the same way.

 

On this fly you can see that the white herl is getting very thin, while the black herl still looks brand new! So the problem had to be the bleaching of the herl.

 

So I visited an ostrich farm and bought these natural feathers. They are not as white as a package you can by in a fly-shop…

 

But! This fly already hit the water, and look at the white herl!

Now, this kind of white is white enough for me, but I would really like to colour them now.

I haven’t tried it yet, but I am afraid that the colouring process will have the same effect on the herl as the bleaching.

So if there is anyone who can give me some advise on doing this the right way, please let me know.