Jungle cock

[boarmountain]

Alot of questions about jungle cock. This is what I know.
Jungle cock is the only NATURAL flouresent feather. It is this quality that makes it so desireable for the appearence of a "real" eye. There are substitutes, but none even come close.

I have bought a bunch of jungle cock necks as well as feathers on ebay. I pay less than $50 a neck and about $10 for a pack of 100 feathers. These are not "display" quality, but as you can see from my flies, they are great for fishing flies.

To me, there is no substitute.
Mike

[Craignev]

I guess the fact that every flatwing posted had jungle cock eyes should have told me the answer.

I'll guess I'll have to pick some up (thanks for the eBay tip). Guess I was just hoping for an alternative that was 1/10 the price, but 90% as good. No such luck.

[boarmountain]

Your welcome, if there's anything else I can help you with LMK
Mike

[Quicksilver]

Boarmountain - two questions. I saw a neck on ebay, and the seller placed a sharpie pen along the neck to show the size. The neck only appeared to be 5"-7'' long. Is that the average size of a jungle cock neck? Are these necks still considered taken from endangered species?

[boarmountain]

Yes, these birds are bred in this country so they are legal. that is the average size, they are small birds. The seller I bought mine from is "Inky Boy", the same one you saw.

[boarmountain]

Let me re phrase, they are not taken from an endangerd if they are bred in this country. They can be imported from another country w/ a CITIES permit. The bird is still considered endangered in the wild,(I think) but w/ all these birds being bred, how the specie is considered endangered is suspect to me. Reminds me about wolves. How a canadian grey wolf in canada isn't endangerd, but give the same wolf a plane ride to yellowstone park, he becomes "endangered" .

[msiler]

Hi,
I was wondering about the correct size for JC eyes on my flies.

Is there a method for determining how large an eye (feather) to use on a given size fly?

I assume you generally use the small eyes on smaller patterns like sandeels, bay anchovies and spearing but when buying JC
do you generally use the Medium and Large eyes for patterns that use 1/0 hooks and larger?

I noticed Inky Boy on e-Bay has some great priced JC nail feathers but they are mostly small and wonder if I will be too limited in the selection for larger fly eyes?

Your help is appreciated,
Matt S

[boarmountain]

Matt,
I have bought ALOT of packs from him. I would say most are med. size.That is the size I use most.The large and x-large I use for my salmon flies.This fly has a "large" JC eye

[thynnus]

I recently purchased a jungle cock neck from Fisherman's Feathers. I just got it today and thought that the amount of eyes was a little low. Upon inspection I found quite a large bare spot on the neck where the larger eyes should be... Did I get screwed or did this particular neck just have a bald spot? I am kind of disappointed. The first neck I had from them was excellent.

[boarmountain]

Hard to say. If I saw it I could tell you.My guess is it just had a "weak" spot in the neck.

[thynnus]

that's kind of what i thought, but then if it were missing a lot of feathers shouldn't have been graded differently? it was supposed to be an A cape.

[boarmountain]

Maybe, but a cape is graded on # of nails overall, color and how many splits the nails have. It's an imperfect judgement system.

[thynnus]

I know, it's tricky. That's why I am not too upset about it, a little disapointed, but not really upset. Maybe I got lucky with my last neck? Who knows. That's the problem of buying something that you haven't seen personally. Overall it is not a huge deal. The neck is very nice, just some of the larger eyes that I prefer are missing, but it has more small ones that the last one I got and the color is a little nicer. I'll probably shoot them a quick e-mail. It doesn't hurt to ask about it. It wouldn't prevent me from buying from them in the future though. It only took a week to get the necks that I bought and they had to be shipped from England because they can't keep up with the demand from their US business. They went out of their way to get them to me .