The Feather Thief, with Kirk Johnson

The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast

James Hathaway

Bass, Fishing, Bonefish, Wilderness, Flyfishing, Trout, How To, Steelhead, Bluegill, Fly, Orvis, Sports, Salmon, Panfish, Education, Rosenbauer

4.8 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2018

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I occasionally receive a fishing book that really strikes my fancy as being totally original, and last winter I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. Much more than a fishing book, it’s the story of a young Atlantic salmon fly tier who stole priceless bird skins from a British museum and then used them for his own tying and sold them on the internet. Kirk researched the story thoroughly and even tried to trace some of the feathers that were purchased to get them back to the museum. The book truly reads like a whodunnit and I found it fascinating reading. To use a well-worn cliché I literally could not put it down. Some of you fly tiers may be not agree with the stance he takes on tiers obsessing over rare and unusual materials so I think it may create some lively discussions. Regardless, I think you’ll find our discussion fascinating. In the Fly Box this week, we get into more conventional and non-controversial questions, such as these: Why do two dry flies work better than one? How do you fish a Sneaky Pete for smallmouths in fast water? What size and color Woolly Bugger is best? What does the Woolly Bugger imitate? What color polarized sunglasses are best and what are some good brands? Why can I land 18-inch fish but not the ones that are over 24 inches? Are grayling selective? Is it normal to tie a Clouser Minnow with a red head? Is it normal to reel all of your line in before playing a fish? Why am I not catching bigger brook trout on streamers?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today on the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast.
0:05.0	The night of June 23rd, 2009, he took a night train up to this small town, scaled a wall behind the museum, carved his way or broke his way in and
0:15.6	and basically relieved the museum of 299 of these skins.
0:26.0	Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast. This podcast is being recorded on April 27th, 2018.
0:32.0	And you just heard a brief excerpt from my interview today with Kirk Wallace Johnson regarding his book The Feather Thief, which is a really juicy story and the
0:48.2	book actually reads like a whodunit and is one of my my favorite recent fishing books it's not really a fishing book
0:57.1	It's more about the feather trade and and fly tires, but I think you'll enjoy it and I know that you'll be interested in hearing the story because it's a pretty interesting and unusual story.
1:13.7	Anyway, if you have comments about the podcast, you can send me an email at
1:20.0	podcast at Orvis. Orvus.com or you can call and leave a message on the
1:27.7	podcast question request line at 802 36 362, 880000.
1:36.7	So without further ado, let's get into the flybox,
1:42.3	try to answer a few questions before we get on to our interview with Kirk.
1:47.0	First question is an email from Payton, from Virginia.
1:56.0	First of all, thanks to the podcast. I'm a college student and have been an avid bass fisherman since I was a child
2:00.0	and have recently picked up fly fishing.
2:02.0	I usually go fishing for wild brook trout in the streams where I live in southwest Virginia.
2:06.0	I usually use nymphs and have done well, but I haven't caught any real quality wild brookies.
2:11.0	I know streamers are supposed to pull out the bigger trout but still haven't
2:14.6	heard had much luck on the basic streamers I fish. Any suggestions, patterns that have worked, techniques,
2:20.3	or presentations? All info would be appreciated.
2:24.8	So Payton, I have some probably bad news for you.
2:30.0	I'm relatively familiar with those wild brook trout streams that you fish and unfortunately
	...

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