I thought I would share this here since there are some great tyers on this forum. This is a research project about hackle we have been working on for months.
http://www.flyfishfood.com/2014/09/h...mparisons.html
Cheech
The Ultimate Hackle Throwdown
I thought I would share this here since there are some great tyers on this forum. This is a research project about hackle we have been working on for months.
http://www.flyfishfood.com/2014/09/h...mparisons.html
Cheech
Cheech,
Interesting article; thanks for putting it together. I was glad to see Charlie Collins' hackle score well; I've been using his stuff for years and really like it. Charlie's got some great colors in his line, too. His saddles can be used for some dry fly applications, especially when used in conjunction with foam (no problem there for me). Again, appreciate the time and effort put into this.
Regards,
Scott
Last edited by ScottP; 09-12-2014 at 08:12 PM.
Thanks Scott. His hackle was definitely a pleasant surprise. I'll be tying with that cape quite a bit.
Did you factor in tailing material at all in cost/100 calculations? A cape with few or no spade hackles is going to require another source of tails, which adds to the cost, even though spade hackles are not "useable" for hackle.
Bob
If not, Collins carries what he calls Tailing Packs. Not necessarily spade hackle, I've seen them called scapular feathers, but they're good for flies up to a #8. I bought a bag of ginger, brown, grizzly and dun years ago and they should hold me for a long time; think I paid $5/bag.Originally Posted by redietz
About the only thing my old Metz necks are good for anymore is the spade hackles.
Regards,
Scott
Good question Bob. No, we did not include tailing material. If you read through the lengthy post there, it explains why. But in a nutshell, they all had relatively similar amounts and sizes of spade hackle. And if I wanted spade hackle in quantities above what a cape would provide, I would likely use a different source. In the end, the attempt here was to relate capes with respect to dry fly hackle. We, of course, realized the spade hackles might throw things off, but in the end, they did not.
And even if one of the lower scoring capes did have double the amount of spade hackle, but yet had a lower (i.e. more expensive) dry fly score, I'd question the decision to pay that much for the extra spade hackle. Anyway, just a different way to look at things.
Curtis
Are those Whiting prices current?
Maybe I misunderstood, but isn't the "takeaway" still that Whiting is the better source?
Thanks
Should be current prices and "better" is a relative term. To each his own what constitutes "better". We just break it down based on cost per unit benefit, so to speak. For some people, paying a lot more per unit benefit (fly/hackle, etc) is "better" because they like the colors more. We're not saying anything is better per se, we're just commenting on the prices with respect to what you physically get in return.
Great review. Very consistent with what I've seen over the years. With the ability to pick and cull necks you can often find the best of all of them. But I agree that for comparisons sake, in a mail order world it shouldn't be a factor.
Great review with a lot of indepth comparisons. No surprise that Whiting comes out on top in the end. If Collins saddle was quite a bit different in color from the cape in the same pack, it was more than likely dyed. He doesn't write "dyed" on the card for some unknown reason to me why, but he uses a technique where he keeps the skin out of the dye bath so it's hard to tell untill you get it home and really take a good look at it.
Regards,
Mark
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