Originally Posted by
3fhobbyist
I was reading Trout Tactics by Joe Humphrey's again. On page 139 there is a photo of what Joe refers to as the three hackle dry fly. Three hackles from a rooster cape. He mentioned the third hackle has the largest amount of hackle fibers removed from the bare stem in order to brace the first two hackles. The verbal description of the procedure is written on pages 140-141
Have you tied a three hackle fly? If so, I'd really love to see the tying sequence if you have the tools and opportunity to make it happen!
The hackling procedure has that "coolness" surrounding it. I love seeing old flies, reading why and how they were developed. Makes me smile. Even in this age of every increasing synthetics, I find myself drifting backwards in time...
Jeff
Trout Tactics was published in 1981 which means it was probably written in late 1979/early 1980. Dry fly hackle is much longer and stem quality has improved. Multiple flies can be tied from a single Whiting saddle hackle. I'm not so sure there is a reason to use 3 separate hackle to tie a catskill style dry fly now.
However, I would be interested in the results of a fly tied with a single Whiting vs a using 3 separate hackles.
Last edited by Silver Creek; 09-28-2012 at 12:55 PM.
Regards,
Silver
"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought"..........Szent-Gyorgy