Colour of quill bodies

[Trout Of Doubt]

I've had a very quick go at quill bodies and, having looked at a few pics of patterns, mine are all a lot darker than I expected.

The reading I've done suggests I should be taking quills from the eye of the peacock feather (rather than further down feather), but having tried several quils off a couple of different feathers, it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Am I picking the wrong peacock feathers, the wrong quills, or the wrong species of feather?

[savage take]

definitely peacock eyes, they do tend to vary in quality. the ones pearly dabbler sells look okay.

[emerger1981]

Originally Posted by idris

I've had a very quick go at quill bodies and, having looked at a few pics of patterns, mine are all a lot darker than I expected.

The reading I've done suggests I should be taking quills from the eye of the peacock feather (rather than further down feather), but having tried several quils off a couple of different feathers, it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Am I picking the wrong peacock feathers, the wrong quills, or the wrong species of feather?

agree with S.T,
you need to look for eyes with as much colour on the back of the strip of eye quill. i normaly look through some natural eyes then pick the ones with
the widest eye quill and dye them myself, veniards dyes are good,cheap and easy to use.
what colour are you using?

Tight lines

[Trout Of Doubt]

At the moment I just want the natural light colour.

[emerger1981]

if you can look through a load then thats the best thing, otherwise ask the retailer to sort you some with wide quills with as much white as possible,
alot of peacock feathers about arent good enough for what you want.
also depending on size of fly aswell.
try a white thread underbody and leave a small gap between wraps then varnish