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Thread: if hackle represents legs, why do we use anything but black and brown and grizzly?

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  1. #1
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    Default if hackle represents legs, why do we use anything but black and brown and grizzly?

    I must have bought 20 whiting 100s packs of grizzly dyed various shades back when, just cause I thought they were pretty, but I don't have any plain brown. Is furnace an adequate substitute for brown? Is there some use for these purty things? I've used a few for griffiths gnats, but can't think of anything else.

  2. #2
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    Didn't Vincent Marinaro argue hackle had more to do with wing color than legs?

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    Quote Originally Posted by pittendrigh View Post
    Didn't Vincent Marinaro argue hackle had more to do with wing color than legs?
    Datus Proper.

    Proper theorized that hackle basically represented wings.

  4. #4
    AlanB Guest

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    I'd say better. One insect on this side of the pond seems to prove the point. The Large Dark Olive (Baetis Rhodani) has very bright yellow legs (at least the ones on the River Ribble do). However the best imitation of them I've found use golden badger or grizzle dyed yellow olive. The hackles with two colours seem to work much better. So I'd prefer a furnace to plane brown any day.
    Cheers,
    A.

  5. #5
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    When I see patterns for PMDs, they call for ginger hackle, so that would indicate it has something to do with wing color, but so much stuff talks about how the hackle sits on the water representing legs.

  6. #6
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    I think that how the hackle is used determines what the trout sees. When hackle is palmered around the thorax variant dry fly style, I think it probably represents the wings. When tied on a Quigley cripple, I think it represents the legs of the emerging mayfly and the deer hair is the trapped emerging wing.

    When tied parachute dry style around a post, it represents the legs and the post is the wing. Cut off the post of a parachute dry and presto, the "legs" now represents the spent imago "wings".

    What we tie is suggestive and what is suggested not only depends on the material but how and where it tied. As with the cut off post of a parachute dry to convert it into a spent spinner, it also depends on whether other material is present or absent.

    Whether a furnace can be used as a substitute for coachman brown depends on whether the dark center stripe will be seen as a thicker part of the fly body separate from what the brown represents. Tied to represent legs it will probably be OK but palmered, the color shift can simulate a black thick thorax with brown wings.
    Regards,

    Silver

    "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy

  7. #7
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    When you say variant dry fly style, do you mean kind of long and sparse? If you tie the hackle this way, do you add a feather wing, or not use any material to represent the wings except the long hackle?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by herefishy View Post
    When you say variant dry fly style, do you mean kind of long and sparse? If you tie the hackle this way, do you add a feather wing, or not use any material to represent the wings except the long hackle?
    A variant would have longer palmered hackle and usually absent a separate wing.

    See these examples:

    http://www.orvis.com/store/product.aspx?pf_id=90KH

    http://www.flyofthemonthclub.com/sto....asp?item=1206
    Regards,

    Silver

    "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by herefishy View Post
    Is there some use for these purty things? I've used a few for griffiths gnats, but can't think of anything else.
    Attach them to your hair. Very pretty.

  10. #10
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    What a great idea - wonder if anyone else has thought of that?

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