I guess I really don’t know what these types of feathers look like. Can anyone show me what a package of them look like? I am trying to do caddis legs and want to do them right. If it is what I am thinking it is, does anyone know where to get just the feathers? My shop only has a hungarian partridge skin and I don’t want to spend $30 on one.
Thanks!
Cabelas has 50 feathers for $1.99
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ … estid=3048
Alot more places on the web sells them. How about your local fly shop or better yet try some of the sponsors of this site.
GOOGLE for “hungarian partridge fly tying feathers” and search the results.
Do you have a friend that may want to split the skin with you? I do that whenever I can, and both parties come out ahead in that deal.
Good Luck & welcome to FAOL.
Joe
The packages of feathers are okay, but they get abused a bit being stuffed all together like that in the little bags. If you are serious about using them, it’s well worth finding a buddy to split a skin with. The feathers are easier to handle, in better shape, and you have a better range of sizes all pre-sorted by the partridge itself. I’ve done it both ways, and prefer whole skins whenever possible for most my feathers. If you divide cost by the number of usable feathers, you actually generally come out ahead with the skins
My .02 cents worth on this is that you stated you wanted to tie these flies right and Bluegill222 is telling you straight. The cheap packages of partridge are just that, cheap. I do not recommend them. There will be many feathers in the bags that are throw away and of no value. The skin is the way to go. You might also look at hen back feathers. They can be a subsitute and a skin of them is not as expensive as the others and they will work fine. Check out the sponsors here and look at some of the hen back skins. Hopefully, this helps.
Warren has a good point!
Heres a pic of a Whiting Farms Brahme Hen Saddle. Around $18.00. Excellent substitute for Hungarian Partridge.
Hen would be a way to go, too. Good call, Warren. Also, if you know someone who hunts, or are someone who hunts, I’ve used chukar, prairie chicken, quail, and woodcock in place of partridge. The color will be a little different, but I think it’s the motion that really sells a fish on soft hackles anyway. Just another idea or two to throw at you.
Hi bellinghamster,
I agree with the above, that if you are going to be tying soft hackles regularly, then get the skin. I picked up a Hun. Part. Skin a few months ago, and comparing the feathers off the skin to the ones in the bag immediately demonstrates why the skin is better. You get more variety of sizes (the bagged ones tend to be way too big), feather patterns, feather types (primary wing feathers, tail feathers, etc).
Woodcock wings also have nice feathers (in the “shoulder” area) for SH and produce good looking wings on wets. Pheasant wings, male and female, also have really good feathers as well. Snipe is another common feather used in traditional SH (but I can’t find snipe here).
In all cases, though, buy the skin or the wings rather than a bag of feathers. The only time to buy the bagged feathers is if you just want a few and cannot find anyone to split with you. However, I’ve never known anyone who “only wants a few of this pattern”, so …
Honestly, the difference in quality is worth it! Especially since you will also end up with paying less per feather by getting the skin. The one draw back is that it requires a bigger investment.
- Jeff
Another option is to procure one of Denny Conrad’s JV Hen Saddles and Capes. Conranch Hackle is a sponsor here, and Denny hosts and moderates. I’ve been using his JV Hens for soft-hackle flies for a year now and have been extremely happy. They are much easier to use than traditional partridge or starling, and you can find the sizes needed to tie the “wee wets.”
There are a lot of spider/softhackle patterns using hen hackle, here a some -
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page35.html there are four pages.
Most of my hen is from Conranch.
There are also plenty of other patterns using the other
well known game bird hackles, for those, go to-
http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/
and look under ‘Softhackles’ on the front page index.
Bellinghamster: From the wording of your post one might assume that you are fairly new to tying.
If this is so, and you are looking for a few feathers for a caddis fly pattern then - - then if you would let us know the name of the pattern perhaps someone could send you a few feathers or recommend a substitute.
Tim Anderson
Hi Bellinghamster,
Partridge is nice stuff because the stem wraps fairly nicely, and the feathers have really nice dark/light bands on them.
However, the fish don’t care nearly so much as fishermen how nicely marked the hackle on the fly is.
Thus, there are other feathers that will do quite nicely, if not giving quite as nice a fly to the human eye, Again, however, the fish won’t care.
A good substitue is quail, if cost is a consideration. If you have a friend who hunts bobwhites, a bobwhite skin will tie a lot of soft hackles that are quite nice and will fish very nicely.
There are disadvantages with bobwhite, but also some advantages. Bobwhite are smaller birds than partridges, a little, and as such you have smaller feathers available, so you can tie smaller soft hackles more easily. (There are techniques which can be used to tie small soft hackles with fairly big feathers, but they are a bit less handy than just wrapping the feather directly.) A disadvantage with bobwhite is that the stem is fairly fragile, which does make wrapping the hackle more difficult, and the fly tier has to be more careful and light handed. Also, the usable portion of the feather is short, especially compared to partridge.
None the less, bobwhite quail ties very nice soft hackles. The skins used to be available on Ebay for about $5, but I haven’t looked in a while.
As mentioned above, hen pheasant also makes has good soft hackle. I have not used the soft hackle from the wings, but am advised that it is very good. Feathers from the head/upper neck area are also smaller than on the body, so that there are some feathers available for smaller flies.
Starling is wonderful, but the feathers are all fairly dark dun. The stems are fairly strong and are small in diameter, with a nice long sweet spot, and will tie small soft hackle flies, but again the color is dark dun. If you are wanting practice with soft hackle tying, and you like the dark dun hackle, then go for the starling. Wonderfully easy to tie with and excellent to use to learn tying soft hackles. (Also, you can shoot one anytime, as they are one of the few birds considered a pest in the US, and they can be shot on sight anytime. You don’t even need a hunting licience.) Fish also like starling soft hackle. Starling skins used also to be available on Ebay for again about $5.
Hen pheasant skins used to be available on Ebay for very reasonable prices, again more like $5 plus the shipping.
If you are just wanting to tie a few soft hackles in somewhat larger sizes, partly to just have some of the flies, and also to learn about tying soft hackles, then by all means a $2 will probably do you fine. That is what I started with. Everything the other guys said about the packaged partridge is true, but you still can end up with plenty to tie some good soft hackle flies (in larger sizes) with.
One advantage of the partridge over the quail is that if you haven’t tied any soft hackles then you will find the partridge much easier to learn to tie them with.
One other option is whiting hen necks. They run about $15 to $18, but will tie a ton of flies in the #12 to #18 sizes, at least that is what the Whiting guys told me. Nice strong fine stems, and a nice long sweet spot. Very nice stuff.
The bottom line for soft hackles is that almost all upland game birds will have feathers that will tie very nice soft hackles. Some upland game birds are much better than others though.
Regards,
Gandolf
Soft Hackle Flies, were probably some of the first fly patterns used in fly angling. Back then the angler would have a fishing line that they created out of horse hair, and tied the fly on the end of the line. Only when they arrived at the stream/river, would they cut a switch (long small branch) to complete the fishing rig. Back to the Soft Hackle Fly…
The material to create the Soft-Hackle Fly, was comprised of what they had on hand. Feathers from the bird in the pot, and some colored thread from the wife’s sewing basket. Simplicity in design, deadly in results.
I prefer to strip the hackle fibers from one side of the feather, and attach the feather to the hook by the tip.
There is a Hackle Gauge folder in the “Fly of the Week” section, of the FAOL 2006 CD. The De Bois Hackle Gauge has a wet fly hackle gauge chart.
“Keep It Simple Simon”
Anyone who does not yet have the FAOL 2006 CD, I have a few left to mail out You can PM your mailing address, or contact me at…