Welcome to FeathersMc.com, a site dedicated to Salmon Flies and their materials

Materials For Sale is where you will find the best selection of quality materials for tying Salmon Flies at very reasonable prices. I also try and give as much information as to material relationship to hook size as I can. If there is something you are looking for and I don't list it or indicate I'm temporarily out of stock on something, please contact me at [John at Feathersmc dot com] 

There are several NEW Slide Shows available in the MATERIALS SHOWCASE section above. They each have number a pictures in them and will take a little while to load. If you have a cable or DSL modem it will take a few seconds or so but a telephone modem download could be several minutes. Whether it will be worth the wait or not is entirely up to you.

The pictures were for the most part supplied by Wayne Luallen. Not only was Wayne “The Johnny Appleseed of Salmon Fly Tying” [spreading the gospel far and wide so to speak] he was the lightening rod for many Salmon Fly Tyers work during the 1980’s and 90’s in the US. This occurred pre-internet and before digital cameras [we remember them as “The Old Days”. As a result his collection of Salmon Fly pictures (color prints) is second to none and he has shared it with us. My wife, Linneya, is in the process of scanning all the old pictures and creating an album for each tyer. To date we have William Chinn Jr, Wayne Luallen, Eugene Sunday, and Al Cohen and we are just scratching the surface. Each show will start and move automatically but there are controls at the bottom of the screen that enable you to jump around or stop on one to examine it closely. If you simply move the cursor onto the picture a small dropdown box appears giving any information that had been written on the back of the photo such as the size, pattern and year tied.

The pictures in Exotic Materials Test Slideshow were for the most part taken by me over the last several years. Some of the things remain in my possession while others have simply stopped here briefly while on their way to someone else. Some of the pictures were taken by friends of things in their collections. They were sized for the old slideshow format and have been enlarged slightly by the new system. I will be revamping it entirely in the near future.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES contains articles of interest to the Salmon tyer or those inclined make it yourself. There are several articles called Flies In Stages where Friends have photographed flies in the various stages of construction.

The FRIENDS section continues to grow and offers an interesting array of People and either the things they sell, their own web sites or pictures of their Salmon Flies for you to see.

KORI BUSTARD offers some exceptional pictures of the birds and directs you to very interesting information about them. There is a pilot program in the works to allow any U.S. fly tyer FREE KORI BUSTARD simply by requesting it.
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I continue to add items for sale, new Friends etc. throughout the site. I'll attempt to inform you weekly of anything that might be of interest here:
Any updates prior to March 2008 have been placed in What's New Archives

May 7 2008 Not much in the way of April Showers but we still have May Flowers. Fishing is picking up so it is getting difficult to spend every waking hour working on feathers and such. I will continue to add new and restock items as they materialize.

I did find time to finally finish a new fly and sortta split another one with Bud. The Owenmore Variation (below right) was tied while visiting with my friends Jim Blais and Tom (Dr Tom) McFarland in February during our annual get-together. Bill Bailey had made up the proper colors of Mohair Manes for the Owenmore, I decided to change the position of the body and tail veiling as well as the wing components. Bud was here in March and I had a Green Highlander done, up to mounting the wing. The wing was made with dyed White Florican and Bud had never used it so he mounted it and finished the fly. Bud doesn't like White Florican and he didn't like the finished product I call the Exaggerated Highlander (below left):

                                                                    

I thought I'd leave the two flies above as I have so few examples of my work.

November 18 2008 Sad News: Paul Ptalis, a good friend, a great salmon tyer, author and an inspiration and mentor to many, passed away Tuesday November 17 2008. He will be missed by all.

I'm looking forward to the International Fly Tying Symposium this weekend. I hope to see many of you there. I'll have the booth next to Keough Hackle this year. Due to his expansion Bill requires the full double now (you'll see why when you get there) and Graham Maisy (Gaelic Supreme Hooks) will be sharing some of my space. I'll have quite a bit of nice stuff this year. See you soon. All orders have been shipped as of now and anything ordered over the next few days may not be shipped until I return on Monday November 24 2008. See you soon.

December 3 2008 The International Fly Tying Symposium was a tremendous success for most everyone in attendance weekend before last. All the vendors I spoke with were very pleased with the cash being spent and the many tiers and viewers I encountered all seemed pleased with the show. Gas being cheap certainly doesn’t hurt the economy. My sincerest thanks go out to all of you that stopped by my booth. It was good to see so many old friends and to make so many new ones in one weekend is really nice. I can’t begin to thank my dear friends Tom (Dr Thomas) McFarland, who drove out from Madison Wisconsin and Don Meyer, who flew from Flint, Michigan (he said his arms were tired when he got home) only to spend much of their time there helping me in my booth.  My stock of some things was severely depleted but I should have it all replenished soon. I’d like to report I’ve just been kicking back, relaxing and watching TV since I returned but I have been dyeing feathers, packing orders and ordering products like a madman along with having a houseful of family/company for Thanksgiving. The only downside to T’day was the Detroit Lions dismal showing at Ford Stadium.

Dyed white Turkey is fully restocked with a couple of added colors (I had another box of feathers waiting when I got back) I’m still working on a big bunch of Indian Crow Sub, some with slightly different color schemes (I should have pictures posted soon) filled in all the missing floss colors (they should be here any day) and ordered new stocks of goose, hackle and pheasant pelts that should be here soon. Blue Ear Pheasant pelts will possibly be available by Christmas along with some additional items for the feather fancier.

December 11 2008 Today was a banner day for some new and interesting stuff. I now have Lady Amherst whole Tail Clumps as well as Lady Amherst Pelts with crest and tippets a couple hundred Scarlet Macaw covert pairs but I haven't photographed them yet and new season fly from ourFriend in Poland. I'll have that up soon.

Our Friend Dariusz Ptak, from Poland, and I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you Dariusz, he tied the flys in the thumbnail pictures below. Click on them to see a larger image:

                                              

January 20 2009 We are getting a new President of the United States today.  I trust he will be an improvement over the past one even if he doesn't fish or tie flies. If you haven't looked beyond the home page lately you may not have noticed some of the new or replenished items. Duck Flank has some new feathers, all Goose Shoulders are in stock with a couple of new colors, Hooks have 2 new sizes in the Dee and Long Dee I've picked up a few Pretty Little Birds that won't last long and some new dyed offerings of Spey Cock Hackle in Rooster Coque. I also have a great supply of Scarlet Macaw Coverts for full featherwing flies. There are new things showing up all the time, today I received a bunch of what appear to be good golden pheasant whole tail clumps, they've been washed and are hanging up to dry. I'll know tomorrow if they are as good as they seem. They are nice see Golden Pheasant Tail Clumps Am-Gold Tails and Blue Ear Pheasant pelts will be here soon. There is more good news on several fronts but too premature to tell about it at this time. Unfortunately I won't be making the trip to Jersey for the Jan Somerset Show this coming weekend. I'm too busy shoveling snow here in Michigan.

February 15 2009 Winter is still upon us. It warmed up a few days ago, melting our 70 inch snowpack (and flooding low areas) but we now have snow on the ground again and at or below freezing (for the high) for the next ten days. I've restocked Seal Dubbing and Blue Ear Pheasant Pelts, Added 2 new Florican Substitutes I'm finally proud of,  and introducing a Grade B Turkey  

February 20 2009 I've added a few Links (under Educational Resources) A couple are long overdue and a couple of new (to me) ones you might find interesting. If you have a website pertinant to our hobby please forward same to me at John@FeathersMc.com and I'll try and get it listed in a timely fashion.

March 1 2009 I now have Am-Gold Tails re-stocked but more importantly Am-Gold Crests both light and dark in stock. Click on Am-Gold to see the offerings. Don't miss the upcoming Midwest Fly Fishing Expo March 7 & 8 and the Huron River Tying Symposium March 14. I'll be at both.

April 16 2009 It's been a while since I've updated but its been due to some administrative changes taking place in the web site back end. I have been adding a few things here and there but nothing major until we make some more changes. I say we as my webmaster/computer guru has come home for a visit after living in Fiji for the past 3 years. I'll be heading for Seattle tomorrow morning to tie and dye with the North West Salmon Fly Guild this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to either finally meeting or seeing again many of you Pacific Northwesters. I'll be back Monday night so anything ordered as of now, won't be mailed until Tuesday April 21.

April 22 2009 I'm back from a great trip to Seattle and I had a wonderful time. They are a great bunch of guys and really treated me royally. I enjoyed the visit beyond words. I've packed all the orders that have come in while I was gone but I'm going Trout fishing in Grayling MI on my beloved AuSable later this morning. It's Hendrickson Time, my favorite time of year. I'll be back in a couple of days as it appears Thursday and Friday will be the nicest days weather wise.

April 30 2009 Back from Trout Opener, I'm glad it's more about friendship and such as the weather was iffy at best (wher is global warming when you need it) and the hatches were just beginning to show. All orders have been shipped as of today and I am leavingagain to tie flies with friends in Wisconsin. I'll be back Monday. Not much has been changing on the site due to some major changes that are taking place behind the scenes. Hopefully you will see shortly.

 May 29 2009 Expect some major improvements to the site shortly. I haven't been adding to or changing the website as Steven (my computer whiz kid) is home for a short visit and has been busy building a new and improved platform for FeathersMc. Something to bear in mind is the last time I did a major change the coded address changed slightly (dropped the php at the end) and anyone who had it marked as a favorite reached a sorry out of order message even though the site was up and running. If in the near future you experience difficulty in reaching the site, simply do a Google search for FeathersMc and reach it that way. It may not be a problem this time but I wasn't expecting that sort of thing last time. Maybe it is because I don't know much at all about computers or how they work. I just keep plugging away and hope for the best.

I've run short of a few things but have restocked JEC Floss, Seal Dubbing, Dyed White Turkey and goose. I've had to make a change in the Twisted Gut but I think it is for the better.

June 19 2009 The change over to the new platform is about to begin. There will be some interruptions and quite possible there will be some difficulties but hopefully it will not be too bad. I do have Indian Crow and Chatterer for sale.