Hackle Length on Parachutes/Spinners...............
I was under the weather for a couple of weeks and didn't feel up to tying. So, I spent a lot of time viewing tying videos on Youtube and other media.
One of the tiers I enjoy watching and listening to is Kelly Galloup of Slide Inn on the Madison. He's really a "down-to-earth" tier/fisher. In one of his videos, he talks about hackle. While discussing the various types (neck, saddles,dry,wet, etc.) he got off on a bit of an interesting tangent. He discussed that he feels present day tiers use hackle which is shorter than should be used. He even went so far as to say that he often uses at least one and sometimes 2 sizes larger hackle than is called for given current gauges and size proportions.
Anyway, he stressed that it is more important (to him, at least) in parachutes and spinner patterns. I find that another tier I really admire (Bob Jacklin of West Yellowstone) seems to do the same. I have had such great success with his para-spinner pattern which does have "oversized hackle", that I had started doing the same thing even before watching Kelly Galloup's video.
Wonder what other tiers think of this.
PS, Galloup even referred to the old "Variant" dry fly patterns which used over-sized hackle for classic tied dries.
my little Rusty Spinner
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