I’m a beginning fly tier who has purchased Charlie Craven’s beautiful book, Basic Fly Tying. I am attempting to work my way through it using the materials and instructions he has provided. (As you can probably can tell, I’m a little bit obsessive-compulsive.) I have arrived at the Adams fly. He has a very definite opinion that the wings on an Adam should be made from (grizzly) “generic barnyard hen necks”. The only problem is where the heck can I buy some? Anyone got any they will sell me?
Thanks,
George
Most the guys I know don’t put wings on at all thinking the wings are more for the fisherman than the fish or use hair wings. I call what I tye an Almost Adams. I still catch a few fish with it.
To answer your question, Conranch probably has the feathers that would fit that description or Craven’s Fly Box shop probably has it.
He wants the wide webby feathers. You want to call around for someone who raises Plymouth Rock Chickens.
Here are what the females look like
Most Chinese and Indian hen capes will fill the bill.
or you could order some from Charlie at his shop i know he has some
Metz Hen Necks are a little wider than the Whiting but both are fine and easily available.
Ding, ding. A Whiting Hen Neck will do just fine. The Fly Shop (theflyshop.com) has them in stock.
Feather supply got really screwed up due to the whole “feather head” thing but seems to be coming back slowly.
Don’t tie too many Adams any more because I’m pretty slow with hackle-tip winged dries but when I did, I always found that “cheaper was better” - less expensive hen capes produced better quality hackle for those kind of dry fly wings. Notice Charlie (and A.K. Best, for that matter) called for “generic”, not “genetic”. The genetic stuff that produces those fantastic dry fly saddles and capes of today, for me hasn’t translated very well on the female side at least for this application. The Whiting and Metz hen capes I’ve poked around with have tips that contain too little web to make an Adams I liked (to tell the truth, the fish didn’t seem to care one way or another), while a cape/saddle set I bought years ago for about $10.00 has some decent feathers, maybe not the quality of the barnyard chickens Silver Creek posted, but pretty good & webby.
Whiting Hen Cape:
“Cheap”, generic cape:
Like I said, fish didn’t seem to care one way or another, but since I have the opposable thumbs, I tie them the way I want to.
Regards,
Scott
Second on a Whiting Hen neck doing just fine.
Another alternative is to call Charlie’s fly shop and just ask him to send you what you need. I learned to tie from his web-site and bought the bulk of my tying materials from him. He is very nice, down to earth guy, and a true fly tying artist.
Denny’s grizzly hen skins are excellent, I’ve been using mine for a long time.