starling.

[FFK]

in the latest issue of fly fisherman it talks about using starling for flys, i was wondering if its legal to shoot these pests in washington

[D3Smartie]

YES

[Kaari Dahl]

They're not native and not considered a song bird. You can shoot them anytime.

[SuperDave]

OR you can BUY Starling pelts at a certain tying source that begins with "F" (they are NOT sponsors BTW)

SD

[FFK]

ok, have you guys tried using starling before?

[Joe M.]

I have used starling feathers quite a bit. They have been suggested as an alternative to junglecock for eyes, I tried it but it's just not the same. However they make great softhackle feathers, and interesting cheeks.

[hikepat]

Never looked at the bird much before but after seeing this post looked the bird up on the net.
Intresting looking feathers. I might have to find a winter pelt or at least some winter pelt breast feathers to try out some time. Looks like the winter feathers might make some intresting streamer cheeks for decievers and such.

[Jim Reed]

you can blast those birds anytime you please, just pick out a nice bull

[ak_powder_monkey]

kill as many as you can, they invade songbird nests and basically get the native birds chicks killed

[Preston]

Starling feathers are used on many traditional English soft hackle patterns; Starling and Purple comes immediately to mind. The starling feather is small enough to work well in the smaller sizes and has a nice metallic greenish sheen. John Smeraglio ties a nice Baetis soft hackle emerger with a trailing shuck of Z-lon, an abdomen of one strand of black and one of peacock Krystalflash twisted into a rope, a thorax of dark olive dubbing and a starling hackle.

[Preston]

Here's a picture of John Smeraglio's Baetis Soft Hackle Emerger.