I am a little confused as to what hackle I should buy. I know I want grizzly and brown to start, and I want to tie dry flies from #12 to a few #20’s. I just don’t know weather to get capes or saddles, and I am a little confused about the different grades. Also I have no idea about quality of different brands, obviously I want as good a hackle as I can get for the cheapest price. Thanks ahead a time for any advice.
Conranch Hackles in the sponsors section will sell you a starter set with one half of grizzly and on half of a brown neck. I recently won one of these sets that Marco donated as a raffle prize at the Michigan fish-in and it is good hackle. You will need capes to tie the range of sizes you are interested in.
I bought a full Grizzly cape for my bench. I still need a brown for what I like to tie.
I figure the full cape Grizzly should last me around 147 years… :???:
Also, I like to tye tiny fly’s, like mosquitoes, I have an Ostrich plume feather duster I pluck pieces from for my tiny mosquitoes. That will likely last as long as the grizz cape… :rolleyes:
Start off with some smaller amounts and then zero in on what you want to tye.
I tye smaller fly’s (<16 hook sizes), so I use 14/0 thread for a slower build up. And yes, I’m very narrow minded about what I want to tye. 
And…if ya don’t want to expend on full or half capes, you can always buy Whiting 100 paks. These are geared to specific hook size, and consistent to uniformity & quality !!!
A bitsy less expensive at times ( since your wife can give you a dirty look or more when you
expend great amounts of cash on quality full capes and other various materials…it’s really hard to tie in the dog house lol) !!!
Speaking of which…my wife is getting a bit antsy…so better go to the supermarket with her…buy a Sunday paper…soda…and whatever is on her scheming mind !!!
Sounds like you want to tie adams. If they are parachutes, I tie with hackle a size larger, eg, size 10 for a size 12 fly.
If you only want to buy one of each brown and griz, you will need to buy a cape and not a saddle. Having said that, on a per fly basis saddles are more cost effective but Whitings tie at most 3 sizes of flies. And you will find it hard to get a true #12 saddle. Unfortunately, they have been bred smaller and smaller so contary to the past when it was difficult to get many true size 20s & 22s, now it is difficult to get many true size 12s and 10s.
I’ve found that whiting 100s are often mislabeled as 12/14, when they are really 14/16’s. Open up the package and check them yourself. I’ve done that countless time for tying classes.
The most cost effective buy is the Whiting and Herbert Pro grade hackles. I can recommend one shop as having the largest collection of pro grade hackle. Jim Slattery at Campfire Lodge on the Madison River. Contact him at:
http://www.campfirelodgewestyellowstone.com/whiting-dryfly-hackle-necks.asp
Tell him “Silver Creek” sent you.
Grizzly, Brown & Medium Dun in a cape is my personal opinion. Buy the best you can afford, and you will be set for years.
When I started I bought a Grizzley saddle, used it for everything, figured it had light and dark and would pretty much cover the insect. I caught fish and found out that I liked to tie then went on to buy more.
I would buy the conranch half griz half brown deal, you will learn what good feathers are supposed to tie like, you wont break the bank, and you can move on from there when you get more experience.
Eric
In general the saddle hackle will be longer 10-12 inches (more flies per feather) but have a smaller range of sizes. The capes will have shorter feathers, 2-4 inches but a larger range of sizes. The grading is somehat subjective and varies from manufactor to manufactor. Typically useable feathers per square in on the higher grades, I find this especially true for small stuff 18-24. The lesser grades will also have thicker stems and sometime have feathers that are asymetrical, size 14 on the right side of the stem and size 16 on the left!
I find that for my tying I like to have a good quality cape for things 12 thru 16. For the small stuff 18 thru 24 I like to use the Whitings 100 packs, these are pre-sized saddle feathers that come in a package of about a dozen feathers (enough for a 100 dry flies, more or less). I like using the saddles for the small flies because it give me a longer handle to hold onto, those size 20 hackles are tiny! I find the sizing on the 100 packs a little on the large size, so I often buy a size 14 when I want to tie a real size 12. At $11 - $15 a package I can afford to buy several colors or sizes.
Conranch hackles are an excellent source for good materials, If you give them a call they will be happy to hand pick a cape that has a density of feathers in the sizes you are most interested in tying. Most sellers will split capes, ie. 1/2 grizzly and 1/2 coachman brown for example.
As far as colors, I think grizzly, coachman brown and medium dun are the ones I use the most, in order of importance. I also use a fair bit of dark barred ginger (poor man’s cree?) and black (for ants, crickets, cicadias) I would rather have one high quality cape in grizzly than two poor quality capes in any color. It’s very frustrating to tie with poor quality hackles.
And so I sez to myself, “Sonny, you need to just get off your duff and get more hackle to work with!”
So I went HERE, and I went THERE, and I emailed , and I told the wife I needed the check book, and since I was still alive after that :shock:,
I ordered from Denny.
I choose this:
http://www.conranch.com/v_c_furn.html
Instead of brown, or to use in place of brown classed hackle. I think I will be pleased.
And I inquired about a cree skin. He pulled a #1 Furnace Cape for me, and offered a cree of his choosing, Barred Ginger/Cree like/Dun/ New. He said to forget all but the New. :lol:
I told him to send the whole shootin match.
I have every confidence I will be tickled pink with the hackle and the cree skin Denny sends.
Note to self: Stay the hell away from posts like these, they cost too much. :lol: Back to the vise…
terry,
pm me with your snail mail address and i’ll send you some conranch hackles and 1/2 of a hoffman brown cape. free!
I use grizzly hackles on just about everything. It is very versatile, and goes in my opinion with just about every possible fly. I love the look of grizzly.
Hi,
I put a summary of the case, Capes vs Saddles, on the blog and an audio tying tip: http://wcflies.com/blog/2009/04/tying-tips-dry-fly-hackle-necks-capes-and-saddles/
Hope this helps,
John
Very nice audio file from Dr. Thomas Whiting himself: http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/thomas/thomas.cfm
I liked it so much that I downloaded it to my Ipod, but you can listen to it on your computer too.