The Unsung Starling
Eugene Schieffelin (1827-1906) loved Shakespeare a little too much. He decided that all birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays deserved a home in the United States, so in 1890 he released 40 pairs of European starlings in New York’s Central Park. Their progeny have become one of the most reviled avian pests. But there is a tarnished silver lining to the story, at least for fly tiers—starling feathers make excellent soft-hackles and other flies.The dark purple-green feathers on the neck, breast, and shoulders of the bird are perfect for wrapping hackle collars on midges (a starling skin has plenty of #18-22 feathers—unlike the more expensive hen capes and Hungarian partridge skins). Most of these feathers have white tips that appear custom-made for being gripped with hackle pliers and for reminding tiers not to overdo the number of hackle wraps. (Sparse and then sparser is the usual rule for tying soft-hackles.) The soft, wispy fibers make ideal hackle beards on nymphs and wet flies. Varnished versions of the white-tipped feathers can also be used as a substitute for jungle **** on Jassids and on traditional steelhead and salmon flies. The pale, delicate dun feathers on the undersides of the wings work well for lighter-colored caddis and mayfly imitations. Tiers can even use the flight quills for winging tiny wets. Winter Patterns and Techniques Trout feed on midges, even on ice-cold days, and tiny starling feathers can put life into the threadbare patterns used to imitate them. Because the takes can be hard to detect, fish these midges dead-drift under an indicator and watch for subtle strikes.To tie a simple starling midge imitation, wrap a #20-24 hook with silk or nylon thread to create a slim abdomen, then build a small thorax with dubbing or peacock. Add a turn—or at most, a turn and a half—of starling hackle, and whip-finish. If you want to get fancy, segment the abdomen with fine wire and tie in a bit of white polypropylene or Antron yarn that protrudes over the hook eye to simulate a breathing tube.For another simple but effective midge pattern, use vinyl tubing for the abdomen. Add a black tungsten bead to a #16-24 curved scud hook and wrap a thread base that covers 1/3 of the shank. Clip a bit of small vinyl tubing, lash it to the top of the hook, and wrap thread under the rear portion to prop up the tubing at 45 degrees. Clip the vinyl so it extends just beyond the hook bend. Dub a small thorax of beaver or fine synthetic dubbing (or peacock herl) and wrap a sparse starling feather collar. Black, gray, olive, tan, and green vinyl bodies all work, but my favorite is red.If you tie these midges with tan or light olive dubbing, the wispy, frail, and tiny light dun feathers on the underside of the starling’s wing will complement the thorax color. Winding these frail feathers is much easier with an inexpensive wire-clip tool than with conventional hackle pliers.By February, tiny black stoneflies are active on sunny afternoons. Hikers, cross-country skiers, and the swelling ranks of winter fly fishers have all seen them scampering across the snow, looking like wood ashes come alive. Trout sometimes position themselves in the shallow tailouts of deep pools where the sunlight can raise the water temperature just enough to make things happen. Stay back from the bank and watch for a while. You may see trout push bow waves in the shallow water as they chase the “snow fleas” right up to the bank. No, they’re not muskrats—they’re trout—and you can catch them with two simple #16-18 starling patterns.The Starling and Herl has a tiny tag of gold or silver tinsel and a peacock herl abdomen ribbed with fine gold or silver wire for durability. When creating the abdomen, first tie in the herl and twist it onto the tying thread. Wrap the herl and thread on the hook together. Add a turn or turn and a half of dark starling to complete the fly. The Starling and Purple is another favorite that produces all year, but seems to work especially well in winter. Use purple silk thread or floss for the abdomen. If you use floss, split it into strands with a sewing needle. The abdomen must be sparse and counterwound with fine gold or silver wire. Twist a single strand of peacock herl onto the thread to make the thorax, and finish the fly with a sparse collar of dark starling. A reliable spring and summer version of this pattern, called the Snipe and Purple, substitutes a pale dun underwing feather for the darker feather used in the Starling and Purple.To mimic natural stoneflies, fish these flies so they swing toward the streambank. Let them get close to the bank before beginning another cast, because trout sometimes hit them inches from shore. Spring and Summer Patterns and Techniques Once the “sweet of the year” arrives, trout become more aggressive and feed actively on three main hatches in the East Quill Gordons, Hendricksons, and March Browns. The basic Pheasant and Starling works well for all three. The fly starts out like a Pheasant-tail Nymph, with fibers from a **** pheasant’s tail feather tied in for a stubby tail and then twisted together and wrapped to make the abdomen. You can wind the fibers into a rope with brown or dark olive tying thread for durability or counterwind a fine copper wire rib to add a little flash. Dub a blend of dark hare’s ear and Antron for the thorax or use the guard hairs from the back fur of a fox squirrel. Finish the fly with a sparse, dark starling collar. As Sulphurs and Blue-winged Olives (BWOs) get active, starling feather soft-hackles work well. Make the bodies sparse, using yellow or olive silk floss counterwound with fine silver or gold wire. On the Sulphur, build a thorax of fine yellow dubbing with a smidgen of orange dubbing. For the BWO soft-hackle, use fine gray or tan dubbing and a pale-dun feather from the underside of a starling wing for the collar. I fish the #16 Sulphur Starling when Sulphurs are hatching and a #18 or smaller BWO soft-hackle until the BWOs disappear in October. In high summer, trout move into the shadows cast by streamside shrubbery, and the fish often hold in shallow water near the bank. The trout are not there just to enjoy the shade. Any gust of wind sends ants and beetles tumbling into the drink, and the fish sip them quietly all day long. Sometimes a subtle blip or a dark trout nose pokes quietly through the surface to mark the take. These bank feeders do not want to be noticed. Tie the Peacock and Herl in large (#10-12) and small (#16-20) versions for deadly beetle imitations, but omit the tinsel tag and wire rib. Make the peacock herl thorax chunkier by twisting four or five pieces of herl onto the black thread to form a rope. After winding a plump abdomen, use bottle-green starling feathers for a hackle collar, and whip-finish. Get the trout’s attention by making the fly come down with a splat. Larger fish have learned to avoid making themselves conspicuous and prefer sunken to surface food because they get the same return for less risk.
What’s true for beetles also holds for ants. Most anglers stick with foam or deer-hair patterns in the mistaken belief trout only look up for terrestrials, but sunken ants catch lots of trout. Ants range from large to tiny, and so should your imitations. The easiest way to get the ant profile is to tie two bumps of thread, leaving a bare metal hook between the bumps. It helps to vary the colors of the bumps. Red or gray at the back and black at the front are the most common configurations. Solid ginger, all red, and all black are also effective.
For convenience, tie your ants in batches. After you wrap the thread bumps, leave enough bare metal between them to keep the five-minute epoxy from running together while the fly is on a rotating fly drier. Once the epoxy has hardened, wrap your tying thread over the bare metal and wrap a collar of starling at the midsection to imitate legs. The soft, dark starling fibers impart plenty of squirmy action during the drift. Use the lighter underwing feathers for the brighter ants. Sunken Ants (#12-16) work well for wary trout. Plop them down near streamside brush or dead-drift them through a medium-fast riffle and see what happens. You can also tie other effective terrestrials with starling such as Vince Marinaro’s Jassid.
Anglers long ago learned the trick of pounding up summer trout with hackled spiders tied on short-shank hooks. These flies skate, bounce, and dance on their stiff hackle tips, and trout sometimes lose all caution while chasing them across the top of the water. Unfortunately, trout often miss completely or come loose because of poor hook-ups. Then there’s the related problem of hopelessly twisted tippets, even when you use a loop knot. If you want to catch fish instead of standing there feeling like a circus master with uncooperative animal performers, switch to a Squirmy.
Squirmies are variations of the venerable Stewart’s Spider. The original pattern calls for a body of black thread and a starling or black hen hackle tied in behind the eye and wound backward about 2/3 of the way down the shank. Once you secure and clip the hackle tip, you wiggle-waggle the tying thread through the palmered feather to secure it without trapping fibers against the shank.
The problem with the original version is soft-hackles usually mat down against the hook in fast water, where these flies work best. The solution is to tie in the hackle feather at the eye (curved side up), and dub a tapered body up and then back down the shank. Have the tying thread waiting about 2/3 of the way down the hook, and reverse-wind the hackle feather to that point. Secure the
hackle tip and then work the tying thread through the fibers until you reach the hook eye. Whip-finish, clip the feather tip at the rear, and the fly is done. For a neater-looking fly, add a tiny wisp of dubbing to the thread before winding it back up through the fibers. Black is the best producer, but green, red, pale orange, and white will work.
The Squirmy series of flies are intended for fast riffles and tumbling pocketwater. They work because they trigger a snatch-it-or-lose-it response from a trout that sees a big, meaty, wriggling morsel tumbling down the chute half-drowned, and only inches from the surface. Unlike a bouncing, high-stepping spider dancing on the water’s broken surface, the slightly damp or sunken fly is easier for the trout to nail, and they clobber these patterns with far better accuracy. Train yourself to look 10 feet behind the fly. You’ll often see trout flash off the bottom or boil behind the fly just before the strike.
Late summer brings Slate Drakes (Isonychia bicolor), which trout really love. The pattern I use to match these fast-swimming insects is tied on a stout #10-12, 1X- or 2X-long wet-fly hook. Use black ostrich herl or Antron (or both) for a trailing shuck, dub an abdomen of claret imitation seal counterwound with black thread, and add a thorax of black fur or peacock herl. Use a larger, white-tipped starling feather for the hackle collar, but keep it sparse. Many starling feathers have light tan ticking on their edges and closely resemble the leg coloring of an Isonychia. For faster, deeper runs, you can tie the pattern with a black tungsten bead and an abdomen of fine Wapsi Ultra Wire. Isonychia nymphs are good swimmers, so you can fish either version with a little zip added to the retrieve. Pause and drop the rod tip after each series of strips. Trout often take the fly just after you pause.
Many major suppliers sell whole starling skins for $5 to $7—a bargain when compared to Hungarian partridge skins, hen capes, or jungle cock. You can also harvest a few birds with skeet loads in late February or early March, when the winter plumage is at its best. Use Ziploc sandwich bags to store the plucked feathers by size and color, a step that can be a time saver at the vise.
Too few anglers appreciate the value of old-fashioned wet flies. Trying to keep up with the latest “killer” dry or emerger patterns is fine if you like reading and tying more than you like hooking fish, but wets get the job done even when trout are gulping duns in the frenzy of a hatch. Presentation may not be everything, but it’s at least 90 percent of the game. Put a fly where it belongs and get it to mimic a struggling insect, and the fish will take care of the rest. Starlings are not likely to make the endangered species list anytime soon, and though they remain the bane of farmers and orchardmen, their feathers ought to have a place at your tying table.
Joe Cambridge is a teacher and writer. He lives in Ithaca, New York.
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