Dry Fly Hackle

[Jim Slattery]

Specifically Whiting raised their grading standards about 3 seasons ago. Everything that was a Bronze Grade became a Pro Grade and so on. Gold Grades in the Whiting line finally started to dribble out last summer and are a bit more common now but still reatively scarce. The Hebert line still had Gold Grades but Platinum Grade were next to impoosible to get. I had a Black Cape 3 seasons ago that was incredible 6 inch long size 26 and size 28 feathers. Since that cape I have only seen 2 more platinum grade Heberts and I would guess maybe 10 at the very most have been produced over the past 3 seasons. The Whiting Line is getting close to some Platinums but I don't think any have been produced these past 3 seasons.Basically todays Pro Grade Cape would have graded out Gold 7-8 years ago. The mind boggling thing to think about is cost. You are now paying $30 for a Hebert Minor Pro Grade Cape that 7-8 years ago would have cost you $65-70.00 and you were glad to have it if you could afford and find one. Metz hackle went down hill for quite a while but is now on the up tick. Keough hackle still leaves me unimpressed from what I've handled and seen but there are a lot of people who like the hackle.. Collins hackle has it's nitch and is a fine and consistant hackle. I can't really say much about Denny's Conranch hackle as I haven't really tied with it but I do know he has a strong and loyal following so he must be doing something right!
Jim

[Steven McGarthwaite]

Denny Conrad is to modest. His stock has longer family histories then most royal families, which gives Denny's fowls some of the best hackle I have ever seen. To be honest, most of of my capes are Conranch Hackle. Denny as a Sponsor of FAOL, deals directly with you the fly tyier, not with with fly shops. All three grades of his hackle is the same high quality, the only difference between grades is the amount of usable hackle on the cape. If I remember correctly Denny will split a cape order so a tyier can order half capes, so you can get two different capes of the Grade 2. Same top quality in all capes, so it is a real bargain. He only charges for the postage to mail the material to you, with no handling charges.

Note: The stems on Denny's hackle is oval, so when wrapping a collar, the stem flattens on the hook shank for less bulk in the pattern. If you use rooster hackle in a certain range of sizes (12,14, 16) you can Denny can raise you a rooster and harvest the hackle when they are in the size range.

~Parnelli

[Denny]

Thanks Steven,

We stopped splitting any of our capes last year. (Is posted on our web site.)

We do offer JV Roosters, both cape & saddle from one younger rooster for $40. Many feel they are the best buy. The dry fly quality is excellent and being younger we do not have the feed invested in them. This allows us to price them as we have. You do the math.
For numbers only I say the saddles are sub grade 3, the capes are sub grade #2.

Denny

[Gandolf]

Hi All,

I agree with Denny, I think all of the hackle suppliers are getting better. When I started tying, maybe 12 to 15 years ago or so I bought some of the lower grade Keough saddles. They were OK, and had some really large size hackle on them that was good for large salmon fly drys. The feathers were relatively short, however, compared to some other suppliers, but the hackle was priced very reasonably, and considering the price, you got a good deal. However, if you look in todays catalogs, Keoughs saddles are drastically improved compared to those 3 or 4 saddles I bought back then. The feathers are much longer and more consistent. Keough is getting much better.

The other supplier I can make a direct comparison on is Whiting, because I have two ginger 1/2 saddles that can be compared directly to each other. The older saddle is probably 5 to 7 years old or so, and the newer one is probably 2009 stock, as I just bought a few weeks ago.

The older saddle is a Gold 1/2 saddle, has 5 sizes of hackle, being heavy in #14s and #16s, but also having a good supply of #12s. That older 1/2 saddle has a total of 227 feathers present. This saddle is ginger.

The newer saddle is a Silver 1/2 saddle, has 7 sizes of hackle, is heavy in #14s and #16s, but also having a good supply of #18s. That newer 1/2 saddle has a total of 207 feathers present. This saddle is barred ginger. The saddle is probably 1" longer than the older, the barbules are noticibly thicker and apparently stiffer, and visually appears to have a higher barb count. Thus the newer saddle is one grade lower than the old, but the hackle appears to be better in every way, and it has only a few feathers less than the older one. The difference is great enough that you can see it with the naked eye.

I have hackle from Denny, Keough, Metz, and both lines from Whiting. I can honestly say that it is all incredible hackle in my view. When I look at the hackle pictures in my oldest tying book, which is now about 30 years old, the hackle quality is incomparably better today.

If the best stuff that they had back 30 years ago was in one of todays fly shops, it would likely be in a bargain bin for $6, and be marked for bugger hackle. The problem, though, would be selling it even at that price, because todays bugger hackle is so much better than best of that dry fly hackle would be.

Regards,

Gandolf

[rainbowchaser]

I couple of years ago my brother decided he wasn't going to get back into fly fishing and gave me all of his old material including his prized grade 1 Orvis grazzly neck with only a few hackles gone. That neck was one of the best you could buy thirty-five years ago. The feathers are short and the barbules are not nearly as stiff as newer necks and it has fewer barbules per inch of feather. I'm still tying dry flies with it but I'm reminded that back then it was standard to use two or three hackles for each fly even if you liked them sparsely hackled. The area where today's hackle falls down is that it is very difficult to find hackle for larger flies. I find myself looking over the Indian necks in the fly shop for hackling hex flies and maybe an occasional varient.

[deon]

there is a big article on flyfisherman.com right now about this it is very informitive and a good story to go with it. it will answer any questions you guys have about the quality, well not every single one but should solve this question