Before anyone jumps up an says get a life, there is a reason that I did this. My dear friend Ray Yeutter and I had Bob Gaston dye a 1/4 midge saddle for us. This was a Bronze grade grizzly that we had dyed dun (only the white took the dye of course).

We split and sized the hackle and then I counted them. The yield was 3-#22s, 28-#20s, 86-#18s, 30-#16s.

The 16s were all short should yield 2-3 flies per feather. The rest of the batch were as you would expect 8-12 flys per feather. At 10 flies per feather this should yield about 90-100 dozen flies 18 and smaller. Not bad for a $32 investment, Bob charges $5 for dying the 1/4.

So when you look at that saddle hanging in your favorite shop, it is really pretty cheap.

baldmidge