My personnel tying along with for friends I would require,
Grizzly (think I need another of these)
Brown
Barred brown (one of my favorites)
Badger
Black
Gray (or blue dun)
For saltwater
White (essential)
Black
Olive
Chartruese
plus a number in other colours for flatwing flies, not specific but when
I see them.
Midge saddles in Grizzly, Brown and blue dun/grey barred (still using
swap pack)
Ashley
I also like black hen capes from Whiting (other colours mostly Indian)
with Coq De Leon in a number of shades for dry fly tails.
/"I think the last line in his post sums it up fellas: We had better get
used to nymphing. Dry flies RIP."
/
Unless you tie commercially, I would think that a Whiting dry-fly
/super-saddle/ would last you a lifetime for fishing flies, especially
if you had, say, a half-dozen colors or so in your arsenal. Because I
am on the Pro Staff and am somewhat a collector of necks and saddles,
I have enough for many lifetimes of recreational and show tying. Some
I got simply because I liked the color or pattern, and many have never
been used yet.
But if I were to 'recommend' a color selection in the standard #16 -
#12 size dry-fly saddles, it would be these:
RC Brown or RC brown-dyed grizzly
Grizzly
Black
White or cream or barred-cream
Dun or barred dun "dun English ?color?. A somber brown color with
a grayish hue. "
Gray or barred gray
One could tie most patterns with the above colors, but if one could
get them, I would add these- a personal preference:
Cree
Speckled Champagne ('Flecked' to some) (my favorite for
rope-dubbing peacock nymphs also)
A rounded-out dozen would include these:
Ginger or bar-ginger (towards gold)
Fl. Chartruese
Olive
Fl. Yellow
The first 6 would give an average tier a lifetime of flies and the
others would give a lot of variety and stretch out the basic colors.
The last 4 could be co-op swapped to cut cost.
Of course Whiting has a lot of variety beyond the basics above, but
specialty tiers could get a few capes (necks) in similar colors and
have the dry-fly and some bugger or streamer hackles to boot.
Some may consider some midge saddles, but a co-op wap of 6 swappers
should give one a lifetime supply of midge hackles. If not, having
some #1 grade necks will tie a ton of midge flies- again, in the basic
6 colors. Careful cape selection pays off. It used to take two neck
hackles to tie a decent fly- now one can tie 3 to 6 flies from one #1
neck hackle.
Denny Conrad has a good deal on feather variety if you were to have at
least one of his whole capes This way you get dry and wet fly
hackles, and a lot of body feathers for soft-hackle patterns. His
most successful color is a dun.
Specialty tying creates whole new needs, like saltwater or flat-wing,
or streamer tying. I have dozens of capes and saddles for these, and
a bunch of Coq De Leon saddles for awesome speckles.
As far as price per tied fly, it's hard to beat a super-saddle, and if
one is on a budget, then a 100-pak is a good 'get-by' method, and the
6 basic colors could be aquired inexpensively.
So what would you use for the basic 6 dry fly saddle colors, and where
would you expand from there?
DonO
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