Cul de canard (CDC) (French for "duck bottom") are the feathers from the back of a

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form ...

directly around the preen gland (

uropygial gland The uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobed sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds used to distribute the gland's oil through the plumage by means of preening. It is located dorsally at th ...

); they are very buoyant due to preen oil produced by the preen gland. They are used when tying

dry flies An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing (although they may also be used in other forms of angling). In general, artificial flies are an imitation of aquatic insects that are natural food of ...

for fly fishing. They owe their buoyancy to their proximity to the ducks

preen gland The uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobed sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds used to distribute the gland's oil through the plumage by means of preening. It is located dorsally at the ...

which secretes an oil distributed by the duck as a cleaning and waterproofing measure. It is unnecessary for the angler to add additional oil by way of floatant. Flies incorporating CDC are easy to dress requiring no floatant and popular with anglers and

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

alike.

History

The use of CDC's in fly fishing originated from the

Jura Mountains The Jura Mountains ( , , , ; french: Massif du Jura; german: Juragebirge; it, Massiccio del Giura, rm, Montagnas da Jura) are a sub-alpine mountain range a short distance north of the Western Alps and mainly demarcate a long part of the Fre ...

during the 1920s where fly fishermen used this feather in dry flies to aid buoyancy in a particular pattern called Moustique. It took until the 1980s for popular use of this feather within a whole range of patterns.

References

{{fisheries and fishing Artificial flies