Hackle

[Cold]

I received a question from a fellow tier on another forum about what hackle to use on what flies, and how they differed. I did my best to explain the differences as the first major post in my new blog (having decided to close the old one down due to a mess of really horrific coding). Figured I'd put up a link here to help out any other beginners that might be having similar questions about what to use where.

http://dharmaofthedrift.blogspot.com/

Feel free to ask further questions, make comments, voice complaints, make suggestions, or add to what I've said either through the blog's comments section, or right here.

Thanks.

[Gandolf]

Hi Cold,

Pretty good brief summary of hackle. I would add a couple of thoughts.

A difference between dry fly saddles and necks is the distribution of fly sizes that the two will tie. Typically saddles have a fairly narrow range of feather sizes, and the saddle will tie primarily only 2 or 3 sizes of flies. There are often a few feathers a bit larger or smaller than the 2 or 3 primary sizes, but these larger and smaller feahters will be small in number. Most brands of saddles will tie flies only down to #12 or so, but some are available that will tie very small sizes. A good saddle will tie a very large number of flies in two or three sizes.

Necks, on the other hand, typically will tie a broad range of fly sizes, and often will tie flies from #8 to #22 or smaller. The neck will tie a fair number of flies in each of those fly sizes.

Both saddles and necks are graded into 3 or 4 different grades. Typically the grades of a given brand of genetic hackle are not about the quality of the feathers on the saddle or neck, rather they are based on the number of feathers on it. The better grades have many more feathers, and will tie many more flies than the lower grades.

You might also add a bit about one of the differences between hen and rooster feathers is length. Hen saddle and neck feathers, besides being much softer and webbier than rooster feahters, are much shorter than rooster feathers.

One other comment. You describe as the cape or neck as feathers from the front of the bird, but in fact it is the feathers which circle the neck and down onto the brest.

Again, you did a nice job on your post.

Regards,

Gandolf

[TyroneFly]

Nice blog. Not to take away from your article, but to add some more info on hackle, here is a link to Liz Conrad article, What is Hackle? http://www.conranch.com/hackle_article.html

[Cold]

Thanks for reading and providing feedback, guys!

That bit about necks and saddles is right here in the rough draft...somehow I missed it when I copied and pasted over into the website...I just fixed that.

I will certainly add the explanation of the grading system soon too as well.

Also, that link is excellent! I'll add a link to it as well when I go in and revamp the article.

If you feel so inclined, please check out my latest entry, with tips to improve your fly fishing photography.

[TyroneFly]

I have been reading and enjoying your blog. Thanks for the photography tip.