whiting 100's size 10 -- too small!
I bought some whiting 100's in grizzly died olive to tie some #10 green drake patterns, but the hackle is too small. I have a Griffin hackle gauge and none of the feathers measures a size 10, and only a couple measure size 12--the rest are 14's and 16's.
In addition, every feather has a short section where the barbs have been splayed out from the quill--in other words the hackle barbs are perpendicular to the quill in those sections. Those sections measure the widest when measured on my hackle gauge, and only a one or two reach size 12. In any case, isn't that cheating? You don't measure hackle size by first splaying out the barbs at a 90 degree angle from the quill.
I also measured the feathers against the hook gap of a #10 Tiemco 900BL and the feathers are barely one hook gap wide.
A.K. Best has a pattern called the Henry's Fork Green Drake Dun, and he clips the hackle even with the hook point on the bottom, but other patterns like Bob Quigley's Green Drake Quigley Cripple appear to use hackle that is 1 1/2 times the hook gap.
Should I return the Whiting 100 pack and just die my own--I just read about the Kool-Aid method?
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