I recently starting tying, picking it up fairly quickly, I orginally purchased four full saddles (Bronze grade) in different colors. They seem fine for tying dry flys and bomber patterns. Saddles are considerably cheaper, however the from what I’ve read online people suggest buying necks over saddle, what the difference?
I’d buy saddles if I was tying a narrow range of sizes. Necks if I was tying a bigger tange of sizes.
For most of the flies you will probably use here in Nova Scotia i would buy mainly saddles and get some 1/2 necks or Whiting 100’s to fill in the other sizes you might need.
Jamie
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For what it’s worth. I would start with a cape. You will notice over time that the sizes you tie most will disappear from the cape. When needed, eventually purchase saddles in those sizes.
NS,
As you get farther into the obsession, you’ll find that you require both.
However, if you are just starting out, I’d confidently advise a good quality CAPE, rather than the saddle.
There are several reasons. Mainly, however it forces you to learn how to properly select the feathers from the neck, shows you the differences, etc. You can learn alot about how and why flies are constructed and the effect that the both the size and ‘taper’ of the feather has on them.
You can see how an Adams will look and fish if you oversize and/or undersize the hackle. It gives you options to ‘customize’ a fly to specific conditions that the two or three sizes on a typical saddle won’t.
By the way, unless you only tie one kind of fly, ALL the feathers on the neck will have uses.
Those tiny ones work great for hackle tip wings and for hackle on ridicuously small dries. The larger ones at the bottom make great tails on poppers and frogs, wings on steamers, etc. What they used to call ‘spade’ hackles along the outer/underside edges (you’ll see these, at least a few of them, and they are wider and usually have stiffer stems) have perfect tailing fibers on them. You can always use ANY feather for something on a fly.
So, there really is nothing wasted on a cape.
Saddles are great conveniences. The product of years of selective breeding, these incredible feathers are a genuine leap forward for the fly tier. I wouldn’t be without them, but I still like the variety of feathers and the options you get with a good cape.
Good Luck!
Buddy
I would also recommend that you start off with necks. As Buddy said, there is really no waste on a neck if you’re a well rounded tier. The large feathers on the bottom of the neck can be used for “wonder wing” style flies or stripped of their barbules and used for quill bodies. Other feathers can be used for hackle tip wings, plus you get materials for hackled tails on a neck but not on a saddle.
If you’re just starting out you really should go with necks. Once you have a supply of necks if you find that you’re using a lot of a certain color in a few sizes then it would be worth it to start looking at saddles. For the everyday tier who is tying to fill his own boxes though, necks are still the way to go in my opinion. I’d suggest that you buy “silver” or #2 grade half necks in a variety of colors. This way you can buy the equivalent of two necks but get four colors and it will last you a long time.
It would be worth your time to give Denny at [url=http://www.conranch.com:555b9]Conranch[/url:555b9] a call and pick his brain about his recommendations and such. He really is an outstanding guy and he won’t make you feel like your asking “silly” questions.
Jeremy
nsonthefly,
Did you decide upon what colors of necks (or saddles) to get as your first purchase?
I would suggest grizzly, brown, and medium dun. If you buy half necks, then, you will be able to get more colors with less initial costs.
For fly tyers in FAOL, what colors would you suggest as nsonthefly’s first cut?
Saddles I recently bought are 2 shades of brown, grizzy, orange, and just placed an order for black and cream saddles. So far they seem to be fine for the size flies I’m into, however I think any future purchases will be necks. I’ve only been buying bronze grade saddles so far due to the cost of starting from scratch, they seem to be doing the job quite nicely. I’ll be curious to see how they compare with neck hackle, guess I’m gonna have to start working all the overtime I can to support my new addiction. The other question I have is, do I really need to be buying gold or sliver grade hackles?, the brozen grade hackle I have now seems pretty good.
There is no difference in the hackle quality between #1 & #3 grade from Conranch or gold and bronze with Whiting. The difference is the fullness of the neck or saddle and the length of the feathers. In other words a bronze neck and platinum neck will have hackle of the exact same quality and stiffness but the feathers on the platinum neck will be longer and there will be more of them.
In the long run you will find that the cost increase between bronze and silver is small in comparison to the higher feather count. In other words though it costs a little more initially your “per fly” cost should go down as you move up to the higher grades. This is especially true with Whiting Saddles where the price difference between bronze and silver is only $14 but the silver should tie between 300 and 400 flies more than the bronze will.
Jeremy
ns,
If you are Joel from Truro who placed the order with my shop today then the saddles you just ordered, as well as the ones you got a few weeks ago are perfectly suited for tying the size flies used in Nova Scotia. That being said a few half necks for the odd time you want larger or smaller hackles would be a good investment.
With the hackle you have recently purchased from my shop the only difference between the grades is the amount of hackle, the quality of the hackle doesn’t change.
The Grizzly Variant saddle you got last time was one of the nicest i have ever seen, i hated to part with it but i am sure you will put it to good use.
Drop me an email any time with any questions before placing any orders and i will give you my opinions on what would work best for your situation.
Regards,
Jamie
[url=http://www.jamiescustomflies.com:1c670]http://www.jamiescustomflies.com[/url:1c670]
[This message has been edited by Jamie Caddick (edited 26 February 2006).]
Thanks for all the good advise, I’ve got a clear picture of what I need now. Also thanks Jamie for throwing in that Whiting Variety Pack already putting it to use, nice to have someone local that offers alot of variety and fair prices, hard to find that living in the maritimes.
Thanks for the kind words Joel. There is a definite void here in the Maritimes for an “every mans” tackle shop that i am trying to fill. We are fortunate in the amount of top notch shops we do have here but a lot of them cater to the mid to higher end clientele almost exclusively or specialise in supplies for a certain species ( WW Doaks - atlantic salmon and Fishing Fever - atlantic salmon & bass)
I will tell you the same thing that i have told a lot of customers getting into fly tying. If you are doing this to save money you are better off smoking crack, it is less addictive and probably cheaper on the pocket book. 
Jamie
[url=http://www.jamiescustomflies.com:9eb63]Jamie’s Tackle Shop[/url:9eb63]