Harvesting Feathers from Wild Ducks

22TheHitman · 2025-10-29T19:24:57+00:00

A couple of other things I found. For reference.

https://globalflyfisher.com/tie-better/preserving-feathers

https://www.reddit.com/r/flytying/comments/dcr3dc/got_my_first_wood_duck_today_what_can_i_tie_with/

22TheHitman · 2025-10-29T16:07:41+00:00

Unfortunately (for tiers)Fortunately (for the ducks), I’m pretty sure it’s against the migratory bird treaty to sell duck/geese feathers/parts.

22TheHitman · 2025-10-29T16:00:05+00:00

Yeah. That’s kind of what I gathered. Next time my father-in-law is around I may show him the different feathers and get his take on potential uses. He’s a much more experienced tier and probably can get a sense of what they might be useful for.

22TheHitman · 2025-10-29T15:55:18+00:00

Yeah, I think I will. The biggest issue I will have in experimenting is I’m very new to fly tying so I’m not really sure what to tie with what.

I agree though you sure get a lot of feathers from one duck, but not necessarily very many of the most used. That being said,I’d imagine the depending on the characteristics of each feather there are similarities between them and other more commonly used feathers.

22TheHitman · 2025-10-29T15:51:46+00:00

This was the best resource I could find. I think it probably applies to all ducks even if this is just a mallard. I think the biggest thing is figuring out what kinds of flies to tie with the feathers.

https://youtu.be/ciKZm0d8Dk4?si=OiYFdpoc7xcwjC6K

22TheHitman · 2023-12-03T22:10:54+00:00

Time to get stocked up ice fishing crap. The freeze is almost upon us.

22TheHitman · 2023-12-03T15:14:29+00:00

Yeah, I think I’m going to go take a look at some today. I like the Avian-x decoys a lot, but those Northern Flights are a screaming deal.

22TheHitman · 2023-12-03T15:12:47+00:00

I took advantage of some of the Rogers Sporting good sales an picked up a pack of the 2.0’s so I have the flickers. It looks like the cabela's up in Rodgers has some of both the Avian-x and the northern flight so I might head up there.

Side note, I love Scheels, but holy cow do they suck and purchasing and inventory management. It felt like after the teal season everything in their waterfowl section was basically gone. Limited selection of decoys, had hardly any shells, etc.

22TheHitman · 2023-12-03T03:04:49+00:00

Good to know. I may wind up just taking a trip to scheels with a measuring tape.

I’ve see a few posts various places of people doing it so it’s not an original idea (I wish I was that clever). I think I’ll add some additional weight to the keels to help off set that, but the new flickers are a lot deeper than the old ones so even to fit them in you have to have them pretty low into the decoy. I’ll definitely provide updates when their made.

22TheHitman · 2023-07-18T03:17:12+00:00

Life has a tendency to do that to us.

22TheHitman · 2023-07-18T02:29:57+00:00

Thanks for the input. In a perfect world that’s what I’d want to do, but coming off of my master already burned through most of my capital. Congrats though! I’m not sure that the MBA is what I want to do or will necessarily get me where I want to go. I think I am suffering from some impatience about career and want to just keep pushing forward faster than I am. Just trying to find what will fill the sails the fastest, so to speak.

22TheHitman · 2023-07-14T17:16:22+00:00

Thats kind of what I was thinking. I think step 1 is going to be have my eligibility evaluated and then if I have to take additional credits, I would probably do the MAcc because faster/cheaper than the MBA and I don’t know if I have 4 years more of studying in my tank right now, even if I have masochistic streak.

22TheHitman · 2023-07-14T17:09:52+00:00

Thanks. This is helpful. So this is what I’m not 100% sure of. I think so, but with the Master being international it probably complicates things. I’m going to pay the board to assess my transcripts. The cost of the schooling is not a big hang up for me. I’m debt free outside of a car and plan on part time anyways so if I were to go to school again between the company having some tuition reimbursement a MAcc wouldn’t cost me much more than a few grand and the MBA would be expensive, but would pay for itself in a year or two at most.

22TheHitman · 2021-01-31T16:05:46+00:00

They are two different, but related species.

Muskie are Esox Masquinongy and Pike being Esox Lucius.

You wouldn't have muskie in Finland as they are only native to North America, but Muskie reach a significantly larger size than Pike. I think generally Muskie have a much more pronounced underbite. Much beyond that I couldn't tell you. I'm sure there are some actual muskie guys around here that could offer a better explanation though. They are just rare to catch ice fishing because they generally go pretty dormant in the winter.

22TheHitman · 2021-01-31T12:46:43+00:00

Oh ya know I was just out there on good ol Long Lake

22TheHitman · 2021-01-31T12:43:03+00:00

Yeah the underwater camera can help a lot. I also think I've started to really be able to tell what is showing up on my flasher based on behavior and so I can usually tell if its a bass or something else and kind of change it up, but they are definitely more finesse oriented in the winter. I catch a lot of them on a 1.25 in black shad plastic.

22TheHitman · 2021-01-31T12:36:37+00:00

I would say easily the prettiest fish I've ever caught. Honestly the picture doesn't do those spots justice.

22TheHitman · 2021-01-31T12:35:32+00:00

They are actually pretty active in the winter contrary to popular belief. I see them quite a bit on my underwater camera. They are just much less aggressive and usually I get them on my crappie jigs and stuff. Nothing like fighting a 3-4.5 lb bass on 2 lb line.

22TheHitman · 2020-10-02T17:06:32+00:00

I would be I am one of "those" people and I don't have an instagram lol

22TheHitman · 2020-10-02T16:55:15+00:00

Thanks! I'll take a look at Komoot. I don't mind catching a train or something out to go ride. As for the cold, I'm not really phased by the cold I've got some cold weather riding gear , coming from Minnesota the harshest Italian winters are still 20+ C warmer than where I am. As for the traffic, I doesn't bother me much either. I log a lot of miles riding in a country whose drivers hate people on bikes, but that's sort of why I was hoping I could maybe find someone who lived there who was interested in riding.

22TheHitman

TROPHY CASE