In viewing videos and SBS instructions that involve peacock herl I note that the quality of the herl used by the expert tiers has the tiny green barbs (?) on both sides of the little stem as it is picked from the big tail feather.
My bundled herl has them on one side only. I get the nice two sided barbs only on the little (stems) that I find close eye on the "eye" feathers. In my opinion, these nicely adorned herls make much better looking small flies. Am I missing something or do these better tiers have unique feather sources?
(Please excuse my improper designation of the feather parts on the peacock.)
Thanks for your thoughts.