Good morning All.
Spider type flies.
Somethings trouble me ---------------
Why are most, if not all hackles in a brown to dark’ish colour, that I have noticed.
Spiders like Orange and Partridge are in the brown range, to me.
Why aren’t there any yellow hackled Spiders to represent say a grass hopper ?
Kind regards,
UB
I would think the dark hackle would give the best definition against the light sky. However if you have a large, yellow legged hopper population, I can see no reason why imitating it with light hackle wouldn’t work.
Eric
Just my initial thought about the question, but it seems like spiders/soft hackles as a whole are more general imitations to look buggy than something designed to match a specific food item, and since most fish food items are normally darker and neutral in color these patterns follow that trend so they can be mistaken for a larger range of things to fish. No reason a yellow hackeled one wouldn’t get eaten if it looked like food like the grasshopper you mentioned though. It will be interesting to hear what others more well versed in spiders and their histories have to say.
im sure an all yellow spider will have its use, on occasion i have used bright yellow seals fur nymphs with success and cant see why a soft hackle wont do the same.
Hi Uncle Barry,
There are a few of Pritt’s patterns that suggest lighter hackles, or some “stained in onions”, which produces a golden yellow/orange colour (on wool at least). Some of the partridge hackles are the white with black flecks feathers, which appear generally quite light rather than dark. That one is often used in a partridge and yellow, while partridge and orange goes for the more brown mottled feather. I think the watchet’s often use a “bloa”, or blue/grey feather. I’ve tied a few of those (yellow thread, very lightly dubbed with grey dubbing, and blue/grey pidgeon feather) and they are quite light in the hackle.
The patterns that call for the feathers from the underside of a wookcock’s wing are also quite light, with very pale markings. Hen pheasant feathers, called for in a few patterns, also produce a much lighter looking hackle.
On the whole, however, the patterns that are currently most popular do tend to be the darker hackled ones, like partridge and orange, or snipe and purple. My favorite, the water cricket, is a dark hackled one using a starling feather. One possibility is that as people start to re-discover spiders they re-discover Stewart’s recommendation of the Baille’s Black Spider, and they go with the few they have heard of, which are probably the Partridge & Orange and Snipe & Purple.
Hi Uncle Barry;
Your right, most patterns use darker colored feathers. I’ve seen a few tied with light blue dun hen hackle, some of which I’ve tied but not had an opportunity to try yet this season.
How’s this for a lighter version?? http://www.flymphforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=218
Wayneb
Good evening WayneB
Sorry I would love to have a look, however as must as I tried, I could not join, because of the so called anti spam code.
Kind regards,
UB
Hi Uncle Barry;
I sent you a pm about that site, hope it helps.
How about Donald Nicholson’s site: http://www.dtnicolson.dial.pipex.com/page47.html
First fly on the link is an iron blue dun.
Wayneb
Dark hackle was easy to procure in local hen houses years ago. Hens in dark shades were were common, particularly in brown. People used what they had and the dark colors became traditional. No one loves tradition more than the British fly fishers. 8T 
Here is a Spider with a yellow dyed hen hackle -
The traditional spiders were tied to simulate British insects.
The grass hopper is not so common over here as a food item
for trout.
Good morning.
Many thanks for your thoughts and ideas.
One of the resaons for asking about dark Spider hackles was or is,
I have been looking at birds, (like most healthy males do)
And looked at their chests (again like most healthy males do)
And noticed that some have feathers that are more spoon shaped than others (… here, I have to be careful, or I will get moderated …so I will just add some dots here and there 
)
Well back to the breasts of birds, …
I noticed some of our local magpie, olive fig eaters and even budgies and cockatiel have great breast feathers for Spider hackles in a number of colours with the yellows the easiest to obtain (and legal ).
From there I thought, why not represent a grass hopper as a Spider type.
Then after looking for a grass hopper Spider I noticed most Spiders had dark hackles. And asked why.
I also noticed, there wasn’t too much written about breast feathers either.
A photo of my Spider grasshopper with yellow hackle, latter today.
Kind regards,
UB
In addition to the comment regarding dark colors providing a better contrast in silhouette
I would suggest that the importance of color is reduced even more by the fact that the light distortion around the water meniscous near the hackle contact points is what you see from below.
Good afternoon,
this image maybe a bit up and close for some, the hook is size 12
(this close image shows everything)
Yellow Budgie breast feather for the hackle.
Spider hopper
the yellow hackle, has been wiped with a reddish brown waterproof marker pen to give this effect, the underside of the hackle is still mainly yellow.
Fly body, almost straight like a grass hopper
complete with a thick blunt head, like a hopper.
Body thread orange silk
Red wire for ribbing and added weight
Hook # 12 Talon Wet/Dry
Another Budgie hackle, yellow.
body concept the same as above.
Hook : Talon #12 up turned eye
Kind regards,
UB
Hi Uncle Barry,
Those yellow hackles on the orange body look really good. I like the effect the marker has on the first one.
Hi UB,
Two very likely looking flies those, unfortunately due to an
acute shortage of budgies in Scotland, I’ll have to stick with
yellow dyed hen. We do have a few uses for yellow hackle,
the Yellow Sally for example, but what Grasshoppers we have
tend towards dark green and brown. I have seen one pattern
using green wool or dubbing.
Good evening Donald,
"due to an acute shortage of budgies in Scotland, "
One of the thoughts for using a light coloured hackle that had a darker top side,
was to produce a kind of 3D, a real creature look, where some creatures have a light under side and a darker to side.
Todate, I’ve had budgie yellow with brown top, with a green top and now a blue black top/upper, all with the easy aid of a waterproof marker pen.
Kind regards,
UB
Very nice UB.
Im not an expert or even close, and strange as this may sound - from what I have read and from various forum discussions from many very knowlegable UK anglers many of the old Spider Patterns were indeed designed to be very specific imitations. Whether this is true or not I cannot say.
Bear in mind that these patterns look completely different when wet.
Hi,
Indeed, most of the original spider patterns were designed with the intention of immitating specific insects (or a range of very similar looking ones). Some anglers, Stewart comes to mind, did suggest general non-specific patterns (Stewart recommended about 3 spider patterns would be all one really needed). But, reading the notes that Pritt wrote along with his patterns indicates they were intended to represent specific insects.