Intro | CDC Types | Harvesting | Tips and Tricks | CDC&Elk | History&Patterns

CDC feathers surround the bird's preen gland. Oiler puffs (shaded in the above illustration) distribute CDC oils to nearby feathers.

Harvesting CDC

The best quality CDC comes straight off the bird. The harvesting process is simple and swift and the average mature bird provides between 70 and 100 usable feathers.

Once you lift the cover feathers, you can easily locate the preen gland by feel as well as sight. The visible part of the gland shows up like a shiny pebble protruding from the surrounding skin and is capped by a clump of feather puffs (Type 3 feathers, or oiler puffs) saturated with oil. On the illustration, these feathers are darker and are just below the thumbnail. The larger feathers surround the gland and increase in size as they get farther away from the center. On a mature mallard the stem on the longest feathers that still retain the CDC structure may be close to 2 inches long. On a goose they may exceed 3 inches.

Store the saturated oiler puffs with the rest of the feathers and in a few days the oil will disperse evenly throughout the feathers, leaving the oiler puffs fluffy.

Fresh CDC feathers are mostly free from vermin, but to be safe put the container with feathers in the freezer for at least two days to kill any mature bugs. Some eggs may remain intact, so remove the container from the freezer for a day or two to allow any surviving eggs to hatch, then put it back in the freezer for two more days to finish the process.

Tips and Tricks With CDC

Bleaching. Bleaching natural dun-colored CDC feathers in a mixture of equal amounts of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide and household ammonia results in a wonderful, warm, light-amber color. The timing is not critical and may range from several hours to an overnight soak. Rinse the feathers in fresh water and let them air dry. The resultant feather stem remains pliant and the bleaching process appears to leave the feather structure mostly intact. The hydrogen peroxide and ammonia mixture gives off unpleasant and unhealthy fumes, so do this in a well-ventilated area.

MP Bonefish Fly

Dubbing. Barbs broken away from the stem make nice dubbing material. Use them alone or mix in other natural fur or synthetic dubbing.

Bodies. Roll a Type 2 feather on a sheet of firm foam. Press the feather down with your fingertips and roll perpendicular to the stem. Start from the butt and work up toward the tip. Once you form the "rope," you can tie it in by the tip and wrap it around the shank for a buoyant and naturally tapered body. Many of Marc Petitjean's patterns feature this style of body. Including the stem makes these bodies virtually bulletproof, without the need of a reinforcing rib.

Trimming. When you cut CDC with scissors, you get an unnatural-looking square edge. "Tear away" the excess length of the barbs for ends that resemble the natural tips.

Drying. I prefer to dry my CDC patterns using amadou. I have experimented with other drying agents such as Shimazaki Dry Shake and Frog's Fanny, but it appears that once you use either of the two on a pattern, the buoyancy only lasts one fish before the drying agents need to be reapplied. Flies dried with amadou can be fluffed up by blowing air on them or with several false casts.

Hans Weilenmann lives in the Netherlands, but visits the U.S. often for fly-tying demonstrations and shows. His website is www.danica.com/flytier/.

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