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Fly Tier's Bench: Tying with Emu Feathers

New twists on an old, but unused, feather.

Fly Tier's Bench: Tying with Emu Feathers
Fly tiers can think of the emu as a giant rooster covered in an array of hackle-type feathers. The smallest, darkest hackles are on the head and neck. Emus stand up to six feet tall and have a tremendous number of feathers that can be used for tying flies. (Ben Romans photo)

This article originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of Fly Fisherman.


Emus have been on our planet since the time of the dinosaurs, some 80 million years. Emus are flightless birds from Australia and a member of the Ratite family that also includes the ostrich, rhea, kiwi, and cassowary. Once found in New Zealand, Tasmania, and Kangaroo Island, emus have been mostly exterminated in the wild in those areas due to overhunting and natural disasters but they still flourish in Australia and domestically in commercial farms throughout the world. Raised primarily for their hide, meat, and oil, their feathers have not been used by most fly tiers.

While thumbing through a Herters catalog at age 12, I ran across a recommendation for tying the Woolly Worm with emu feathers. I decided to splurge another 20 cents and added a package of dyed yellow emu feathers to my order of traditional saddles and chenille. When I received the feathers, I fashioned a few yellow emu Woolly Worms, then put them aside in favor of traditional rooster saddle hackles. I really didn't know what I had. The original pack of feathers is still in my tying kit today.

As a sophomore in college, I accepted a summer job at a small reptile zoo called Soco Gardens, located near the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. This job gave me the opportunity to explore some Eastern trout rivers during my days off, and I was pleased to find a trout stream on the outer edge of the zoo property and an aviary. The aviary contained protected and exotic species and three adult emus. Part of my daily tasks was keeping the cages clean and void of feathers, which was a fly tier's dream.

As I gathered the emu feathers, I noticed the feather barbs had a similar structure to tails and appendages on the different mayfly nymphs I had been col­ lecting and tying. The creative light went on, and I started tying many nymphs with these feathers. The flies worked great, and the feathers held up under rigorous fishing conditions. I then started to horde, sort, and collect bags of these incredible feathers.

Characteristics and Applications

Emus stand up to six feet tall and have a tremendous number of feathers that are hackle-like in structure and cover their entire body, creating a draped silhouette that resembles a large mop.

Even the rudimentary wings that are one-tenth their body length are covered with hackle feathers. There are no noticeable differences in the feathers between males and females. Emu chicks are mottled and have spotted heads. The adult feathers start growing in a brown tone and with sun exposure they lighten to gray and tan with dark tips, near molt.

Fly tiers can think of the emu as a giant rooster covered in an array of hackle-type feathers. Hackles vary in size and color depending on the part of the bird the feather comes from. The smallest, darkest hackles are on the head and neck. These feathers are usually dark brown to black and are 1 to 3 inches long. The feathers along the upper back are long and slender, lighter in color, and can range up to 8 inches long.

The sides, rump, and tail feathers are longer saddle-type hackles up to 2 feet long. These feathers are a mixture of gray, tan, black, and brown.

Emu hackle feathers have a supple flat shaft or quill. The base of the quill has widely spaced barbs that are light in color and have a fuzzy hairlike covering. The barbs become slender, stiffer, and sleeker in appearance toward the tip. Test the barbs for stiffness like you would test a rooster feather before hack­ ling a fly. For dry flies use hackles with the stiff, wirelike barbs; for wets, use the soft, flexible barbed feathers.

The flexible flat shaft of the emu hackle makes wrapping a traditional dry fly easy. The flat quill has a tendency to pin down the barbs under the quill on the forward wrap. To prevent this, brush the barbs back with your fingertips before coming in front with the next wrap. It helps to hold the fibers back when tying off a hackle or finishing the fly.

Emu hackles create an interesting looking Hackle Stacker fly. The barbs' spiky shape creates a unique buggy texture and silhouette. Because emu feathers have widely spaced barbs, I hackle the stacker loop with two or three hackles simultaneously. This allows enough hackle barbs in the limited space to sufficiently float the fly and create the proper wing silhouette. Stacking multiple colored hackle feathers creates some color shades that have proven deadly on fooling selective feeders.

Recommended


Like all hackle feathers, emu feathers have thousands of applications. Here are a few that I use frequently. The stripped quill is flat, long, pliable, and strong, which creates naturally segmented, durable bodies on dry flies and nymphs. The different barbs from the hackles are good for a variety of tail and wing styles on dry flies and nymphs. The hackle tips make excel­ lent wings on drys, nymphs, and soft hackles. Their minnow-like shape and soft flexible stem create a great swimming motion and silhouette on streamer patterns. The uses for these feathers are unlimited.

The following patterns have worked well and will hopefully open the door of creativity and tying with this neglected but marvelous material.

Fly Tying Recipes with Emu

Recipe: Emu Pmd Cripple H.B.
A purple and chartreuse dry fly in a vise.
Emu PMD Cripple H.B. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #16 Tiemco 2487.
  • THREAD: Light cahill 8/0 Uni- Thread.
  • TAIL: Olive Sparkle Yarn or Z-Lon.
  • RIB: Fine copper wire.
  • BODY: Olive marabou fibers.
  • THORAX: Yellow Superfine Dubbing.
  • WING: Dun emu saddle hackle barbs dyed purple mixed with two strands of light purple Krystal Flash.
  • HACKLE: Light emu hackle.
Recipe: Emu Hexagenia Cripple
A dry fly in vise.
Emu Hexagenia Cripple. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #6 Tiemco 200R.
  • THREAD: Flourescent chartreuse 140-denier Ultra Thread.
  • TAIL: Three natural gray fuzzy emu barbs. Spot the barb tips with a black Sharpie marker.
  • BODY: Tying thread.
  • RIB: Thin yellow yarn or yellow floss.
  • GILLS: Natural soft barb emu hackle.
  • THORAX: Yellow 2mm closed-cell foam cut into a small strip and wrapped. Spot bottom with a brown Sharpie marker.
  • WING: Stacked emu barbs from a large emu saddle hackle, mixed with three strands of olive Midge Krystal Flash and two strands of regular purple Krystal Flash.
  • HACKLE: Dyed yellow emu saddle hackle.
Recipe: Emu Callibaetis Nymph
A nymph fly in a vise.
Emu Callibaetis Nymph. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #14 Tiemco 3761.
  • BEAD: Gold.
  • THREAD: Gray 8/0 Uni-Thread.
  • TAILS: Three gray fuzzy emu barbs, spot with black Sharpie marker. RIB: Fine gold wire.
  • BACK: Hareline Embossed Pearl Flashback.
  • BODY: Stripped emu saddle hackle.
  • WINGCASE: Barbs from a dark mottled emu saddle hackle, Hare­ line Embossed Pearl Flashback.
  • THORAX: Bronze glass bead, figure­ eight wrap the top of the glass bead with bronze-dyed peacock her!. Peacock Ice Dubbing.
  • LEGS: After pulling over the wing­ case, tie three strands of the saddle barbs along the sides and clip off the rest. Trim the legs if they are too long.
Recipe: Emu Blond Humpy
A dry fly in a vise.
Emu Blond Humpy. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #14 Dai-Riki 305.
  • THREAD: Fluorescent chartreuse 140-denier Ultra Thread.
  • TAIL: Blond emu saddle hackle barbs.
  • BODY: The underbody is tying thread; the back is blond emu saddle hackle barbs.
  • WING: The tips of the blond saddle hackle barbs used for the Humpy back.
  • HACKLE: Two blond emu hackles.
Recipe: Emu Callibaetis H.B. Stacker
A dry fly in a vise.
Emu Callibaetis H.B. Stacker. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #16 Tiemco 2487.
  • THREAD: Gray 8/0 Uni-Thread.
  • TAILS: Three gray fuzzy emu barbs, spot with black Sharpie marker.
  • ABDOMEN: Stripped emu saddle hackle.
  • BACK: Hareline Embossed Pearl Flashback coated with Rio Knot Sealer.
  • RIB: Fine gold wire.
  • THORAX: 1mm gray closed-cell foam cut into a small strip.
  • HACKLE: Two natural emu barred hackles, stacked together and pulled over thorax for wing.
Recipe: Emu Stacker Green Drake
A dry fly in a vise.
Emu Stacker Green Drake. (David J. Siegfried photos)
  • HOOK: #10-12 Tiemco or Targus 100.
  • TIIREAD: Yellow or fluorescent chartreuse 140-denier Ultra Thread.
  • TAIL: Black moose mane hair fibers. BODY: Green or olive 2mm closed-cell foam.
  • RIB: Tying thread.
  • THORAX: Spun green or olive deer hair.
  • HACKLE: One each of natural mottled, dyed chartreuse, and dyed purple emu hackles stacked and pulled over thorax for wing.

Bob Quigley is a fly designer and author. His latest fly-tying DVD is Tying Bob Quigley's Signature Flies (Pegasus Pro­ ductions, 2004). He lives in Ashland, Oregon.




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