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Fly tying
All Containers›Shop by use case›Fly tying›The materials›Substitution is the craftShop all fly tying →
The materials

Substitution is the craft

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page11
The fish is the only judge. Which makes substitution a technical question, not a compromise.

The classic dressings name materials that are gone

Victorian salmon fly patterns call for feathers from species now protected, restricted or simply unavailable. The written dressing is a historical document rather than a shopping list.

So the craft substitutes, and has for a century

Dyed domestic feather, farmed alternatives and synthetic fibre reproduce the colour, the barb structure and the movement. This is established practice rather than a modern concession.

And the fish does not read the dressing

A fly is judged by whether it is eaten. Silhouette, movement and how it sits in the water do the work, and the provenance of a feather is invisible underwater.

Buy from the mainstream trade, which sells domesticated poultry bred for tying, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act question does not arise.

Exhibition tying is the exception

Flies tied to be framed rather than fished, where the dressing is the point and authenticity matters to the tyer. That is where the material questions get hard.

And it is where the other statutes appear

CITES, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act can each reach exotic and historical material independently. None of them is read in this property.

Keep substitutes labelled as substitutes

Which matters for the tyer rather than the law: a jar of dyed domestic feather standing in for something else should say so, or the next person to open it will not know what they have.

Synthetic has its own storage requirement

Some synthetic fibres are static-prone and cling to everything, and some degrade in light. A lidded opaque container solves both and costs nothing.

Dyed material can transfer

A strongly dyed feather stored damp against a pale one will mark it. Dry, separated, and in its own container is the answer, which is another vote for many small jars.

The honest summary

The craft has solved the material question by substitution, the law follows from what you buy, and the container question is sorting rather than compliance.

References

16 U.S.C. 703(a), the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Unless permitted by regulation, "it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof" as specified in four bilateral treaties. law.cornell.edu
The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The fly tying shelf is 716 rows: 335 containers and 381 closures. 5 mL to 250 mL with a median of 59; 30 containers at 15 mL or under, 100 at 30 or under, 204 at 60 or under, and nothing above 250 mL. 165 PET, 84 glass, 62 HDPE, 24 PP. 275 bottles, 59 jars, 1 tube. 79 white, 71 clear, 61 amber, 42 blue, 24 natural, 19 black. Closures: 260 continuous thread, 43 dropper assemblies, 20 dome lids, 16 flip top, 14 phenolic, 9 liners and sealing discs, 6 specialty, 6 dropper tips and caps, 3 euro droppers.
Written from 16 U.S.C. 703(a) and 50 CFR 10.13, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. This property does not say which species are on the protected list, because that is a lookup against 50 CFR 10.13 rather than something to assert from memory. CITES, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act can each reach exotic tying materials independently and none of them is read here.